Star Wars: The Old Republic Loses Executive Producer - UPDATED

Andy Chalk

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Star Wars: The Old Republic Loses Executive Producer - UPDATED


Amid rumors of further layoffs at BioWare Austin, The Old Republic Executive Producer Richard Vogel confirms that he has left the company.

BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic-Pc/dp/B001CWXAP2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342551267&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Old+Republic] MMO has suffered another big blow as the executive producer on the game, long time Star Wars guy Richard Vogel, has confirmed his departure. Vogel had been with BioWare Austin since the beginning, co-founding the studio in 2005, and had served as executive producer on The Old Republic since June 2010. Prior to that, he'd spent five years working on the "other" Star Wars MMO, Sony's Star Wars Galaxies.

BioWare Austin also reportedly laid off an unspecified number of workers today, although it's currently not clear whether those are "fresh" layoffs or simply those that were announced in May [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117379-BioWare-Austin-Cuts-Workforce] finally taking effect. BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk said at the time that the studio was "bidding farewell to some talented, passionate and exceptionally hard-working people," but didn't specify how many were being cut or when they'd be shown the door.

After a trial mode [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115658-The-Old-Republic-Becomes-the-Fastest-Growing-MMO-Ever] that allows players to create characters in any class and take them all the way to level 15 at no charge.

Vogel's departure reportedly came ahead of today's layoffs. BioWare has not yet announced who will assume his role at the studio.

UPDATE: BioWare has confirmed with GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-07-17-ea-confirms-bioware-austin-layoffs-date-back-to-may] that the layoffs reported on Tuesday are part of the staffing cuts that were originally announced in May.

"As announced in May and detailed at E3, the BioWare Austin team is refining Star Wars: The Old Republic to continue to grow the game and the service," a rep said. "As with the launch of any MMO, the size and skillset of the teams needed to maintain the game is different than the ones that built it. Starting in May, there have been staff reductions in the BioWare Austin studio. Some people have been platooned to other projects at BioWare Austin and EA SPORTS/Austin. Others have been released - qualifying personnel receive severance and outplacement assistance."

Source: LinkedIn [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/174300/SWTORs_executive_producer_leaves_BioWare_amid_layoff_reports.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29]


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kortin

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Mar 18, 2011
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Wait, his name was Vogel?


Thank god he was laid off, he would have caused some serious problems for my gang.

On a more serious note: It's always sad to see someone lose their job, no matter how good or bad they are at it. :\
 

Cyrus Hanley

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kortin said:
On a more serious note: It's always sad to see someone lose their job, no matter how good or bad they are at it. :\
Especially when they co-founded the studio they worked at.
 

kortin

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Cyrus Hanley said:
Especially when they co-founded the studio they worked at.
Oh so he did, I must have glazed over that part. That makes it even worse. My condolences to him.
 

draythefingerless

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This layoff thing is unsurprising(not this guy, this guy is surprising since hes co founder and all). there was a LOT of people brought in to make SWTOR, and it makes sense that now that the game is done, layoffs occur, since theyre no longer needed, and bioware wont use them for sure.
 

RicoADF

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It says that he has left the company, its quite possible that he can see where its going and he's abandoning ship before he's taken down with it. Being the captain and all :)
 

Alex Mac

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Ignoring that the nature of the departure not necessarily seeming to be a lay off, I wouldn't be shocked if the decision was made simply to pursue another start up project. Studio jumping is not really a new thing in this business, particularly once you've "finished" the product. It's something that you even see with positions like Community Managers and the like. I'd wait before foretelling doom. At least to see what the man's next venture is.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Burn in hell, TOR. Maybe then you can stop trashing Knights of the Old Republic 2 in order to make a quick buck.
 

Sheo_Dagana

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I'm sad see someone that helped found the Austin studio go, but lets face it, this isn't going to affect SWTOR in any way.

Soviet Heavy said:
Burn in hell, TOR. Maybe then you can stop trashing Knights of the Old Republic 2 in order to make a quick buck.
I'm confused/curious on what you mean by that, because I see little to no references to KOTOR 2 in this game.
 

Karadalis

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I said it before and i say it again:

Its Warhammer online/mythic all over again...


First the game looses subscribers left and right, introducing free server swapping.. then the boss is fired.. then the games dev crew is reduced to skeleton size and the game put on bare minimum live support to slowly wither away. Somewhere inbetween more and more servers are decomissioned.

To bad no one at EA got the memo that no one can make WoW 2.0 anymore.. not even blizzard (the current one) could pull that off in my opinion.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Sheo_Dagana said:
I'm sad see someone that helped found the Austin studio go, but lets face it, this isn't going to affect SWTOR in any way.

Soviet Heavy said:
Burn in hell, TOR. Maybe then you can stop trashing Knights of the Old Republic 2 in order to make a quick buck.
I'm confused/curious on what you mean by that, because I see little to no references to KOTOR 2 in this game.
The entire premise of the game is based around plot elements from KOTOR 2. The True Sith Empire was first mentioned by Kreia. Remnants of the ancient Sith Species who lingered in exile beyond the outer rim. Revan was prepping the galaxy for their return, but then vanished.

The upcoming HK-51s are a bastardized version of the HK-51 assassin droids that HK-47 was supposed to have taken control of to beat the HK-50s and GOTO in KOTOR 2. According to the restored content mod, and made official in the Essential Guide to Droids, HK-47 turned the HK-51s into his personal army, answering to no meatbag and creating a droid nation.

Now, they are being turned into minions for players because Bioware is losing subscriptions, so in desperation they turned to fanservice at the expense of what the HK-51s and the True Sith actually were.

The True Sith from KOTOR 2 were not the proto galactic empire. They were more a force of nature, the very essence of the Sith themselves. They were almost supernatural, a really unique take on the dark side that didn't rip off the Galactic Empire. So, Bioware turned them into the Galactic Empire because they think people are stupid and wouldn't be able to tell if they were sith unless they looked like Darth Vader knockoffs.
 

Starke

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Mamzelle_Kat said:
What's a Produer?
Someone who does stuff professionally... They are also often french, hence the Pro-duer. :p

Now seriously though, "What is a producer?" As I understand it, basically, a producer is your guy who actually makes sure the pieces of a project all fit together. A lot of times that's through making sure there's funding. Making sure all the various parts are working together properly.

In the case of an MMO, we're talking about making sure all the little fiefdoms, (coding, art, PvE content, Raid content, PvP, game mechanic engineering, and so on) are all working together, and not getting in each others way. In a way, for video games, a producer looks a lot more like what you'd expect from a director in films. They have to handle a little bit of everything and make sure the project has a clear objective.

Translation: This is (probably) the guy who said, "in order to be successful, we need to be as close to WoW with lightsabers as possible."

In films, a producer tends to be the guy who gets the money, and points the project in a general direction when they pick a script and hire their director. After that they can be involved in casting, SFX, editing, and in some cases directing (usually when the director IS the producer, but not always).

Again, this is my recollection, if someone else wants to jump in and clarify further, please do.
 

Starke

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Soviet Heavy said:
The True Sith from KOTOR 2 were not the proto galactic empire. They were more a force of nature, the very essence of the Sith themselves. They were almost supernatural, a really unique take on the dark side that didn't rip off the Galactic Empire. So, Bioware turned them into the Galactic Empire because they think people are stupid and wouldn't be able to tell if they were sith unless they looked like Darth Vader knockoffs.
The "True Sith" in TOR are kinda... consistent with the Sith race from Tales of the Jedi... except, IIRC they were supposed to me mostly wiped out by the time KOTOR1 rolled around...

Though, as you pointed out, KOTOR2 really deals with the fallout of that war in detail.
 

Alex Mac

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I can easily think of a way to cover for Mr. Lore Freakout's little hissy fit about HK-51 models. Place this facility on a planet that isn't Telos. Which is easy because Telos isn't in game. Boom. That amaaaaazingly terrible lore problem caused by cut content and a blurb in an old sourcebook? Fixed. As for the "True Sith", to my understanding, Avellone's idea was not entirely different from BioWare's. A splinter Sith Empire. Just not from Sadow's time.

I swear, some of the criticizes TOR faces are nuts. Some are well earned. But for as much as I love Chris Avellone and KoToR II, Heavy's little rant is vacuous. TOR's far more lore compliant than people think. If we want to criticize it, focusing on mechanics issues, content limitations, or mismanaged server distribution at launch ought to be the road to walk down.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Alex Mac said:
I can easily think of a way to cover for Mr. Lore Freakout's little hissy fit about HK-51 models. Place this facility on a planet that isn't Telos. Which is easy because Telos isn't in game. Boom. That amaaaaazingly terrible lore problem caused by cut content and a blurb in an old sourcebook? Fixed. As for the "True Sith", to my understanding, Avellone's idea was not entirely different from BioWare's. A splinter Sith Empire. Just not from Sadow's time.

I swear, some of the criticizes TOR faces are nuts. Some are well earned. But for as much as I love Chris Avellone and KoToR II, Heavy's little rant is vacuous. TOR's far more lore compliant than people think. If we want to criticize it, focusing on mechanics issues, content limitations, or mismanaged server distribution at launch ought to be the road to walk down.
The fact that they aren't from Telos doesn't matter. It was a freighter that crashed Belsavis. What does matter is that the way they are being presented goes against what the HK-51s are supposed to be. Independent, self serving killing machines that answer only to other HK units due to their self preservation routines. Having them turned into player companions so that they can have their own personal HK-47 knockoff goes completely against the HK-51s original intent.

And while Avellone may have had similar intentions as Bioware for just what the True Sith were, I doubt the execution of such a foe would be similar. The True Sith we are presented with are Sidious's Galactic Empire, right down to the visual aesthetics. Their leader is Darth Nihilus with a different name. Instead of the war of ideals that Traya hinted at, we are given the Prequel Era Old Republic fighting the OT Era Galactic Empire using force of arms.

Everything about what Bioware has done is the antithesis of what Obsidian had planted. The internal war of ideals becomes the external war of weapons. The droids of individuality and independence become slaves to organics. They seem to take Obsidian's ideas and then do the opposite.