14 DAY TRIAL // Star Wars: The Old Republic is the big MMO launch of the year, the one that people are watching in order to see whether the supremacy of World of Warcraft, the biggest subscription-based game in this space, can be challenged.
And one of the main factors that will decide how the game is received is the difficulty for players, linked mainly to how often they die and how the game treats failure.
Speaking in a thread in the community forums for The Old Republic Damion Schubert, who is the lead combat designer working on the MMO, has spoken about the complex balance that the team he heads needs to strike between making the game too easy and creating an experience that is too frustrating to the gamer.
He says, “Harsh death penalties can disincentivize grouping. I’m sure we’ve all been in some pretty bad groups in our MMO playing. How likely are you to group with a healer or tank that you don’t know if the penalty for failure is disastrous? How hard is it for new players to learn the skills they need to contribute to groups if other group members feel they can’t risk taking on a new guy?”
More information is offered in this thread on the official forums.
But those who are already familiar with MMOs will have to work hard in certain situations to overcome the challenges that The Old Republic throws at them.
Schubert elaborated, “We want there to be complex fights that might take multiple tries to get right. We want to put in challenges for groups of players that require good tactics, good teamwork and flawless execution to pull off.”
Initial reports pegged Star Wars: The Old Republic for a launch date somewhere during the spring of this year, but information coming from inside developer BioWare are now suggesting that the MMO will be out in autumn, with the team using the extra time to put the finishing touch on the experience.