14 DAY TRIAL // BioWare's Daniel Erickson, currently writing director on Star Wars: The Old Republic, has recently declared, in an interview for Strategy Informer, that he does not consider Final Fantasy XIII to be a role-playing game. When asked about the relationship between gameplay and story, with the interviewer suggesting that FFXIII was an example of a great story that was marred by repetitive gameplay, Erickson had this to say: “Well, before I address the main point I just want to take a slightly more controversial route: You can put a 'J' in front of it, but it's not an RPG. You don't make any choices, you don't create a character, you don't live your character... I don't know what those are - adventure games maybe? But they're not RPG's.”
He went on to comment that most of the people who played through Baldur's Gate more than once were the people who enjoyed the gameplay, more than those who enjoyed the story. He also assured fans that Star Wars: The Old Republic's gameplay would be on par with its story, even if it would not be the standard MMO fare.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a massively multiplayer online RPG developed by Bioware in conjunction with LucasArts. While we don't know many things about the MMO features of the title, we know that it will, unlike others of its kind, contain a heavy story component and that it will be the first fully voiced MMORPG.
On the gameplay side, there will be four basic classes for each of the conflicting factions, the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. The developer has recently revealed that each of these classes will be expanded with an advanced class system, so that each player that reached a certain level can choose between two or more specializations. The tentative release date of the game is Spring 2011.