Star Wars: The Old Republic Celebrating KOTOR's 10th Birthday

[Andy Chalk]

Star Wars: The Old Republic Celebrating KOTOR's 10th Birthday

The MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be doing a few special things to mark the tenth anniversary of the game that inspired it.

Long before Star Wars: The Old Republic helped put John Riccitiello out of a job, BioWare introduced gamers to the setting with Knights of the Old Republic, a single-player RPG set 4000 years prior to the events of the original Star Wars trilogy, and which also happens to be one of the finest Star Wars games ever released. It came out on July 15, 2003, which means that its tenth anniversary - always a big one - is less than two weeks away.

In what I think is a pretty classy move, EA announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be doing a few things to mark KOTOR's big one-oh. There will be a blog post from BioWare Creative Director and Knights of the Old Republic designer James Ohlen, who will talk about the game and how it influenced the development of SWTOR; a new title, "Revan's Heir," available through the Cartel Store for just 24 hours for what is apparently a low price of ten Cartel Coins; and Cartel Coin giveaways throughout the day on the SWTOR Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/starwarstheoldrepublic].

It's nothing too elaborate, but the Old Republic site describe these events as "some of the things you can look forward to," the obvious implication being that it's not all of the things you can look forward to. Either way, it all goes down on July 15; keep your eyes on swtor.com [http://www.swtor.com] for more information.


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[BeCeejed]

Sure would be nice if they added controller support to the Steam versions of KOTOR & KOTOR 2. I guess special MMO content is cool...if I played SWOTR.

Remember, though, there's more coming. Not Bethesda level awesome freebies, but hey. We can hope for something super cool.

 

[shintakie10]

That's cool I guess? The first part (this better only be the first part) is...a weak offerin to say the least. A blog about how KoToR 1 influenced ToR is interestin, but I have trouble it'll be any different or more in depth than any of the behind the scenes stuff that was released before the game even came out.

Also sellin a title for cartel coins meant as a celebration feels shady. Its a super duper low amount, sure, but if its so cheap why not just make it free? I dunno, maybe I'm just bein snipy since its ToR, but it just feels weird to charge people for somethin like this, even if its quite literally pennies.

 

[iseko]

SWTOR is still running? Who knew
OT: I loved KOTOR! I still play KOTOR like once every year. Even KOTORII (with the extended content patch). This kinda feels like a bad way to celebrate that game. You can buy a title in swtor? How is adding another microtransaction a way of celebrating? A blog that explains how they took a gem of a game and shit all over it?

To sum up: fuck you EA, so very very much.

 

[Ishal]

Long before Star Wars: The Old Republic helped put John Riccitiello out of a job

Wow, you don't mince words, do you?

He didn't and it was AWESOME. I had quite a few yucks over that.

 

[Lawyer105]

Its a super duper low amount, sure, but if its so cheap why not just make it free? I dunno, maybe I'm just bein snipy since its ToR, but it just feels weird to charge people for somethin like this, even if its quite literally pennies.

Under certain circumstances, it might be considered good marketing. It's a well known fact in F2P development that getting people to use the shop the first time can be really difficult, but that after that it's much easier to get them to make a second etc. purchase. It's to do with the headache involved in setting it up, adding your card details, putting shop currency on your account and so on. Once they've done it once, the bar for a further purchase is drastically lower.

So I guess that, really, it's just a cynical attempt to play off people's nostalgia for the awesome of KotOR to drum up additional business for the mediocrity of SW:TOR.

Since this is EA, it really shouldn't come as a surprise...

 

[Deathfish15]

In what I think is a pretty classy move, EA announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic will be doing a few things to mark KOTOR's big one-oh. There will be a blog post from BioWare Creative Director and Knights of the Old Republic designer James Ohlen, who will talk about the game and how it influenced the development of SWTOR; a new title, "Revan's Heir," available through the Cartel Store for just 24 hours for what is apparently a low price of ten Cartel Coins; and Cartel Coin giveaways throughout the day on the SWTOR Facebook page [https://www.facebook.com/starwarstheoldrepublic]./quote]

Really? This is /faceplam worthy on a whole new level. How much money went into development of this game? Was their entire budget spent on just IP licensing?! And for their special in-game events, a major one they need to announce from the rooftops, you get a blog post and a title that PLAYERS HAVE TO BUY?! REALLY?! Holy Skritt droppings and bookah barf!

Free-2-play or not, this game is such an epic pile of #&$%. Guild Wars 2 from the start is buy the box and it's yours to play whenever. Every other holiday they come up with something interesting, something fun, and something FREE! Winterday for Christmas, Halloween for..Halloween, Dragon Bash for summer, and I'm not even sure what's going to happen during the anniversary, but it's been hinted something special will happen (and if GW1 is any indication, then it'll be 1-Uping Dragon Bash).

That game (GW2) should be posted and advertised with each and every holiday event (which they did get a whole thing from The Escapist because they sent pinatas to every gaming media outlet to bash just prior to Dragon Bash.... THAT IS BRAG WORTHY!) Not selling some cheap ass title as crazy prices to their player base to "celebrate" something, which SW:TOR should be SHAMED FOR!

 

[Louzerman102]

Long before Star Wars: The Old Republic helped put John Riccitiello out of a job

Wow, you don't mince words, do you?

He didn't and it was AWESOME. I had quite a few yucks over that.

This is why I read articles on the Escapist. They can put a smile on my face.

*gives internet thumbs up to Mr. Chalk*

 

[Doom972]

So they celebrate this great game's 10th anniversary with payed content for its bastard child of a game? It would've been better if they'd done nothing.

How about something people who have and still play it can enjoy? Or maybe a short video, or (only if you're an awesome company like Valve), make a giveaway so that more people can experience the game?

 

[KaZuYa]

SW:TOR was on the best MMO's released for a very long time but it had no chance because people are so obsessed with racing through a game in a few weeks and then farm phat lewts they have killed the MMO.

Not one MMO comes close to SW:TOR's story and levelling experience, I'm a hardcore MMO raider but SW:TOR was the only game I enjoyed levelling my toon then as one of the guilty parties I raided for a month or so got bored and quit and slated the game for having no content. I've since gone back and played the multiple stories through at a casual pace and really enjoyed the depth and humour put into that game.

 

[RJ 17]

While it's neat that they're doing something to commemorate that game that started it all....I can't help but think it'd be rather goofy to have countless players all running around bearing the title "Revan's Heir".

I mean obviously since Revan turns out to essentially be a light-side god or a dark-side satan the title has to be available to light siders and dark siders...so that's going to be a lot of Jedi Jesuses and Sith Antichrists running around.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Well, when you turn one of the most intriguing Sith Lords into a mid level dungeon boss, I suppose further diluting what made him cool is the way to go. Because Revan is dur awsumest Jedi evar.

 

[ciasteczkowyp]

No new operations, terrible lags in europe. this game is unplayable outside of us so no wonder the number of subscribers is getting lower and lower.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I played the game for almost a year when it first came out, beta tested it as well. It's one of the biggest cases of missed potential ever imo. If TOR had been supported like MMO's like RIFT and GW2, it could've actually kept a much higher portion of its population.

Instead, the game went for months without bug fixes and optimization fixes (even worse, they reported on fixing problems that just persisted) and an even longer time without any content updates. Coupled with a number of disastrous design choices: the Ilum debacle, only 2 crafts in the game being useful, placing superguards at every point where open PvP could happen, daily grinds, PvP grind, bullshit RNG loot and then the crappy F2P implementation.

Honestly, I liked the core game despite it all. The combat was rather crisp (for most classes), the pacing was good and the storyline did make it a blast to play through (again, for most classes, trooper story ugh).

They keep having such trouble actually adding something meaningful to the content and actually organising compelling events, while MMO's like GW2 churn those out like no one's bussiness.

 

[Ishigami]

SW:TOR was on the best MMO's released for a very long time but it had no chance because people are so obsessed with racing through a game in a few weeks and then farm phat lewts they have killed the MMO.

If it was so good, people would have stuck with it and just rolled a new character after finishing one.

Also, this is relevant *snip*

He has a point though.
The player did play the game right as far as the gameplay is concerned. However their attitude stinks.
I guarantee you that when you join a PUG flashpoint in SW:ToR that in the very first dialogue someone will complain when you do not skip the dialogue. (?HIT SPACEBAR!?)
The reason for this is simple: They are not there to listen to the story but only want to complete the FP as fast as possible to get the reward and be done with it. The goal is not the experience of the FP but the reward.
The same happens with bonus objectives. If there is no extra boss involved that yield the chance of valuable lot or is irrelevant for the gain of required recommendations then it will be skipped.
Maybe they completed the FP before, maybe because they are just on a daily quest (recommendations) or maybe because they don't fucking care and want to waste as little time as possible. They will also quit or complain when they see on the HP of player that their gear is not good because performance and efficiency is more important than a friendly MP experience. In any case the experience is diminished.
With an attitude like this it is unlikely to enjoy the effort put into the story, plot and characters and a game heavily build around exactly that will suffer for it.
SW:ToR is IMO a decent game (as e.g. 7 out of 10 decent). But the MMO community at large is not the right community to appreciate it.

To get back at Jims video. It is like going to the cinema to watch a movie that is supposed to challenge you but your are with 4 drunk friends that can't STFU and make stupid comments about everything and do stupid stuff like throwing popcorn at each other and you have to ?join? more or less because you don't want to fight with them.
Yea you are not going to enjoy the movie.