Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic, abbreviated TOR, is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) by BioWare, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. The game was first officially announced in an October 30, 2007 press release, though details were vague. On October 21, 2008, the title of the game was revealed, in addition to a fair amount of detail about the game in a press conference. Two tie-in novels, the Star Wars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance by Sean Williams and Star Wars: The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp, will cover the story behind it. In addition, Dark Horse Comics is releasing a webcomic set before the events of the game, which will be reprinted into a regular comic series. During its presentation at E3 BioWare announced the game would be the first MMORPG to feature large-scale voice acting. BioWare has confirmed a projected Spring 2011 release date.

Gameplay
The Old Republic does not dramatically diverge from traditional MMORPG gameplay. Players control an avatar in third-person view, interacting with the various elements of the game world and other players and will have their own starship as an in-game base. It has also been revealed that PvP will occur in warzones, either Jedi vs Sith or Republic vs Empire. However, BioWare intends to put a large emphasis on the story element of the game, something that the company feels is lacking in other MMORPGs. New characters are required to choose to align with one of two factions waging war on each other&mdash;the Galactic Republic or the Sith Empire. Several gameplay elements differ between the factions, such as story and available classes.

Planets
The game features the following planets:

Classes
Each faction has four classes to choose from. Each class can specialize into two advanced classes, giving a total of sixteen variations.

Behind the scenes
BioWare began development on The Old Republic in December 2005 at a satellite studio in Austin, Texas constructed primarily for the project. By January 7, 2007, Electronic Arts completed its acquisition of BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million, in a move motivated by hopes of expanding into the MMO genre of video games. In the following months, rumors persisted about the development of a new Knights of the Old Republic video game, spurred on by leaks from within BioWare and LucasArts and the registration of "Star Wars The Old Republic" and "The Old Republic" as LucasArts trademarks. During the E3 2008 expo, Electronic Arts executive John Riccitello confirmed that the MMO would be connected to the Knights of the Old Republic series of video games. On October 7, Lucasarts and Bioware released an invitation to the press to attend an event on October 21 about "the game that has been rumored about for years." At the event, the official press release was finally published. Drew Karpyshyn will also help with the production of the game as he is moving to Austin, Texas where game is being designed. On Tuesday, 09/29/2009, after the website was down for almost a day, It had been announced that they would be accepting applications for game testing. The procedures include accepting the terms and agreements, basic information and a system scan of the computer you would be using to play the game.

"Deceived" Cinematic Trailer
The 3:53 minute cinematic trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, titled "Deceived," was released on June 1, 2009 and is the first of its kind for a Star Wars video game. It was directed by Dave Wilson and despite appearances, was not developed by ILM but in fact by Blur Studio on behalf of BioWare and LucasArts. Narrated by Darth Malgus, the trailer depicts the infiltration of the Jedi Temple by the Sith during the Sacking of Coruscant. An epic battle ensues in which the Jedi are defeated by overwhelming Sith numbers who have allied with both Mandalorians and bounty hunters. The Jedi Temple is summarily destroyed and Coruscant falls.

Fight choreography and motion capture were externally utilized during the creation process while the sound track was mixed at Skywalker Sound. The use of concept artwork provided by BioWare together with high-res models of the Jedi Temple and spacecraft from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) allowed Blur to authentically create a believable trailer firmly rooted in the Star Wars universe. Numerous John Williams’ themes from the classic and prequel trilogy have been interwoven to create the trailer score. It relies heavily on the themes present in Revenge of the Sith as well as a few cues present in Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel, The Sith Lords.

The trailer has been highly praised by both those in the industry as well as by the fans for its technical and aesthetic achievements as well as its creative storyline depiction. However, much debate and criticism has stemmed from the trailer as well. Many have viewed the trailer, being depicted in a time period almost 4000 years prior to the classic trilogy, as possessing technology and locales too similar to those depicted in the classic and prequel trilogies; an argument that strongly echoes fan criticism upon the release of the prequel trilogy. The most standout example of this is the Jedi Temple being an architecturally exact copy as that seen in the prequel trilogy despite being destroyed. The lack of imagination through the re-use of plot lines has also been criticized. The Jedi Temple falling, yet again, and Darth Malgus requiring a suit that is remarkably similar to that worn by Darth Vader have both been debated. This may in fact be a result of the seeming confusion of LucasArts own marketing manager, Roger Evoy’s belief of when the game’s events actually take place:

"[The video games are] set between the two trilogies. Based off some of the inspirations we got from BioWare [the games’ developer], we were able to develop new combat styles and storylines that as far as the Star Wars universe was concerned, were really new and fresh—we’ve never seen a Jedi temple get its butt kicked like this.”"

- Roger Evoy