4,000 years, actually.
But I agree with you on this. In an MMO market dominated by fantasy settings I don’t see how anyone could complain about a game that isn’t.
Seriously, that’s the worst MMO premise I think I’ve ever heard.
Starwars has always been a fantasy wrapped in a scifi wrapper. All Indy would be is a fantasy wrapped in a late 30’s wrapper… At least it would be something far outside the current mold.
Interesting, thanks.
Starwars has always been a fantasy wrapped in a scifi wrapper. All Indy would be is a fantasy wrapped in a late 30’s wrapper… At least it would be something far outside the current mold.
The Indy world is less fleshed out though – of course, it’s supposed to take place in the “real” world, so you could fill in the details with that. The question then is how Indy Online becomes distinct from “1930s online” – if you press the theme by making everyone an archeologist or a Nazi or by putting all the settings in ancient ruins etc. then it might seem forced. Not sure how you build a coherent gameworld. Geographically it’s interesting… would you build a virtual Berlin, virtual Venice, virtual Cairo, etc., and use those animated “follow the red line” travel transitions to zone between them…?
Yeah, I’ve done better explaining a point before.
My point was that having two Star Wars MMORPGs running side by side would be weird, because I think that Lucasarts would want to throw the lion’s share of their support behind one of them, and kind of leave the other one to die.
Sequels are different to me because they’re marketed as the official follow-up, the evolution of the game, and continuing whatever storyline they have active.
It made sense in my head.
Do a search for VR1’s Lost Continents sometime. It was bad idea 10 years ago and still is today.
I think Star Wars is one of the most recognizable and valuable IPs in the market. And if the MMO they have running isn’t making wads of fat cash they strip it out and start over. Otherwise it’s just a waste.
I was thinking that there wouldn’ve been some kind of do not compete clause in the original contract between LucasArts and SOE. Maybe there wasn’t, or it expired.
Yeah, I wondered about that too – I would be surprised if there wasn’t some sort of exclusivity given to Galaxies. That’s part of why I brought up the difference in setting in KOTOR. It could be a that part of the timeline wasn’t covered in Galaxy’s exclusivity (assuming they have it.)
Declaration: If Hunter-Killer droids are a playable race, I will pre-order.
That would be Eberron – lackluster at best. I’ve yet to meet anyone who actually likes it in and of itself. Star Wars certainly has a much broader appeal.
That is probably the reason for all the secrecy. I would be surprised if SOE did NOT have a non-compete with LA. I’m guessing LA and Bio are waiting for some sort of expiration date to announce.
Does anyone know if we are aproaching any anniversary dates of SWG? Announcement date? Launch Date?
The NGE anniversary is coming up!
Lucasarts has already, and rightfully, left SWG to die. There is no effort to grow the MMO or capture market share from WoW, they are simply “keeping it going”.
It would be in Lucasarts interest to produce a new, differentiated SW based MMO. They aren’t making nearly the revenue that they could with a SW MMO. The “sci-fi” MMO marketplace is ripe for the taking and the KOTOR setting allows LA to cater to both the hardcore fans who will bitch about every discontinuity and also the more casual fans who just want to have fun tooling around as a Jedi.
Originally Bioware said it would no longer be working with other people’s IPs but they later recanted that statement (ironically after the announcement of the MMO). It would make sense for them to be working on a KOTOR MMO as the license has a built in fanbase and the setting is different enough from WoW to either get people to hop the fence or pay for duel subscriptions (if done correctly ofcourse). I’d love it to be a KOTOR MMO but I’m not going to get excited until they actually announce it.
EDIT: The license renewal date for the SWIP license has already passed but I didn’t see any announcement as to whether SOE retained or lost the license. I’m taking that to mean they lost it because I believe SOE would have announced a renewal in order to squash the rumors that were floating around.
<designcommentary>I think that instead of accumulating the ridiculously overused and tired old “experience points”, players ought to accumulate midichlorians all up ins.</designcommentary>
Star Wars is a pretty weighty license. Sony may not have gotten all the restrictions on competition that it would have liked. Plus, SWG has been around awhile, and there is no way that Lucasarts gave away exclusive rights indefinitely.
I’d be very surprised if a new Star Wars MMO weren’t feasible right now if Lucasarts wanted it. I’d also be surprised if they didn’t want a new one, considering the filthy lucre draw of WoW, and Bioware would be the obvious guys to do it, especially as they’re known to be working on an MMO.
Declaration: If there is any mechanics involving midichlorians, I will set fire to the corporate headquarters of whatever company is involved. With my mind.
You’ll need a lot of midichlorians to do that.
Yeah, Eberron’s nothing for Argentina to cry for. Nonetheless, it was an officially licensed D&D MMO that didn’t do so well. Star Wars, too, has its underperforming officially licensed MMO in SWG. The time will have to come when there’s a lousy Star Trek MMO too. (Beam down into instances and fight velociraptors with phasers – and swords, for some reason. Slowly gain levels. Phasers can be slotted with “phaser crystals.” There’s a no-stakes PVP “holodeck.” I dunno, something like that.)