14 DAY TRIAL // As the launch date for the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic draws near, the executives at Electronic Arts have begun to outline the ways in which the BioWare-made video games will be better than the Blizzard made World of Warcraft.
Speaking in an interview to Industry Gamers Frank Gibeau, the leader of the EA Games division, said, “It’s the first time an MMO has actually had a story. When I play World of Warcraft, you go and get your quests, and you go and do your quests, but it feels more like doing a shopping list at times.”
He added that the The Old Republic “is more about talking to characters, learning what’s going on, investing in it, getting emotionally attached to it. You can still go in accessible ways and grind out quests if you want, but at the same time there’s a higher-level story that’s carrying you through The Old Republic.”
Gibeau went on to say that in no way the developers at BioWare are following a template established by Blizzard and that The Old Republic is designed with innovation in mind.
Gibeau says that he likes World of Warcraft, but that the MMO market is big enough to allow more than one big name product to exist at the same time.
Star Wars: The Old Republic will take place a few thousand years before the events seen in the two movie trilogies created by George Lucas, in a world where both Sith and Jedi have a bigger presence and are wagging both covert and open warfare against each other.
Since the game was announced, developers at BioWare said that they aimed to deliver an MMO which focuses on a coherent story and complex player choices, with fully voiced dialog thrown in as a way to immerse the gamer in the universe.
The Old Republic should be out at some point during this year.