Speaking to MTV Multiplayer, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk talked about the recently announced Star Wars: The Old Republic. In particular, he talked about how the game's nature as an MMO might make players consider the consequences of their actions.
"As an attempt to appeal to a broader and broader audience, consequence has left gaming," he lamented. "Everything is very low impact and there's no real negative result that can occur. We're going to start bringing that back but in a rational way, a way that doesn't punish the player — but puts them on the spot. You have some level of choice in who you hang out with and what quests you go on. But once you go on a quest, you don't have a sense of a choice. Your job is to get me some of these, get me five of these and bring it back. They're often very unabashed in their mundane [approach to player choice]."
"Unlike a regular offline game, there's no save," he continued. "When you're sitting and waiting to make that hard decision, you can't just save it and retry it. Once you've made it, you're done. You're going with whatever you did and it can come back to bite you or not. It's actually a neat concept compared to what typically you see in story-based games where people can explore all the choices. In this one, once you make a choice, you're done."
Still, Zeschuk admitted that it's fun to reload old saves and see how situations turn out different. "It's kind of neat to be able to cheat like that, too," he chuckled.
Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 1 of 7)
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 2 of 7)
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 3 of 7)
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 4 of 7)
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 5 of 7)
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 6 of 7)
This Star Wars-themed online role-playing lets players choose their own moral patch, joining either the Galactic Empire (the good guys) or the Sith Empire (the bad guys). Travel across dozens of worlds completing missions, fighting in large-scale battles and, ultimately, learn how to live with the consequences of your actions. (Screenshot 7 of 7)
Reader Comments (0)