Gamespot got a chance to sit down with Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk to talk about TOR. No earth-shattering reveals, but it was nice to hear them say that the game is in the “finishing stages.” Also, good to hear Zeschuk emphasize the importance of quality of service, not just the game itself. The rest of the interview covers the early development of TOR, importance of story that give players a “heroic identity,” magical moments in the game, and the culture of BioWare.
BioWare’s Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk participated in a keynote panel, “Game Changers: A Conversation on the Nature of Interactive Entertainment from some of the Medium’s Most Significant Creators” at this year’s DICE Summit. The Doctors were joined by Mike Morhaime from Blizzard, Mark Cerny from Cerny Games, and Bruce Shelley from Zynga.
Zeschuk acknowledged World of Warcraft’s dominating influence on the MMO industry. “It is a touchstone,” he said, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz. “It has established standards. It’s established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that’s pretty dumb.” Continue reading »
Flashpoint Fun
Carla and Kathy are joined this week by Ysme and Syryn from Kajidic, a PvP SWTOR guild. The four of us discussed the flashpoints updates, the many Dev Tracker posts, and the whole stock market/release date rumor brouhaha. ERTS is up 3 points since all these rumors started, so go figure.
Fact or Fiction: Can you pick out the confirmed fact from the tall tales? This week’s host challenge covers SWTOR time frame and flashpoints. Continue reading »
Now THIS is a Friday Update we can get excited about! Today’s update was a companion to the Taral V flashpoint video that was released by Gamespot yesterday. BioWare added a Flashpoints Overview page to the Game Systems tab, giving fans a peek at five flashpoints — two early game, two mid-game, and one end game (“End game”, they said “end game!”). They promise more flashpoints and more information to come.
Read full update here.
Gamespot released a one and a half minute trailer for Taral V, a four-man flashpoint, starting level thirty-two. This seamless fusion of cut scenes and combat footage along with the sweeping musical score gives the game a decided movie-like, AAA single-player game feel. Interesting note: Zabrak Jedi Knight!
The trailer is accompanied by an interview with World Designer Jesse Sky who talks about the basics of a flashpoint (approximately ninety minutes in length, four-man, repeatability). He ends the interview with a line that could come straight from a commercial for SWTOR: “Many of us play the game in our free time for as many hours as we work on it during the week. It’s very exciting. I have a difficult time pulling myself away to play other online games lately, and that speaks volumes.”