I've been replaying Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic over the past few days, just to remind myself just how good this game is. For those of you who don't know what Knights of the Old Republic is (shame on you!) here's a brief run down. Knights of the Old Republic (Kotor) is an RPG title developed by BioWare and published by Lucas Arts. Set 4,000 years before the events in episode 1, a Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Malak, has unleashed a vast Sith Armada upon the unsuspecting Republic. You, the player, take control of a Republic Soldier serving aboard the Endar Spire - a Republic Capital ship. Your mission (and despite being an RPG, you have to accept it) is to stop Malak and his Sith army at all costs. Everything isn't exactly what it seems however and twists and turns in the plot (which are purposely hinted at earlier on) take the game through fast action and deep, compelling stories. Sounds like a description taken from a gaming magazine, right? Well that's because this game is amazing. Anyone who is calling themselves an RPG veteran and hasn't played this game is lying.
Kotor is one of the more defining games to come out of the RPG genre in recent years and in true BioWare fashion, it was awarded multiple titles including, "Best Video Game of 2003." That's right. Not just best RPG or best Sci-Fi... Best Video Game of the entire year that was 2003. That should tell you something.
Being a massive Kotor fan (despite the sour reception I gave Kotor2) and having not looked up on the prospect for a Kotor3 in a while, I decided to do some digging and boy did I find some conjecture and speculation worth my attention.
MMO Wars: Episode 2: Return of Star Wars?
Firstly, let me introduce you to BioWare. BioWare are a multi-award winning game developer. Whilst BioWare haven't leapt into the MMOG market yet, they are one of very few corporate identities to be respected - along side such big names as Blizzard. Ever heard of Neverwinter Nights? Perhaps you've played Jade Empire or Baldurs Gate? That's right - BioWare are the guys behind the best RPG titles of the last decade. There is no debate that these guys are good.
Next, let me introduce you to Lucas Arts. Lucas Arts don't' really do any heavy development any more (to my knowledge) but they do have a habit of getting the best there is on board for a project. BioWare, Obsidian and even SOE. Star Wars Galaxies, for example, was a great title until SOE broke it for whatever reason. Then we have legendary titles like the Monkey Island franchise. These guys have been around for years and they know their stuff.
Now on the surface, this seems like an obvious link. Lucas Arts are a subsidiary of Mr. Lucas' major company and thus, own the rights to Star Wars. BioWare developed an award winning Star Wars RPG that was arguably the single most successful Star Wars title of all time.
It isn't that cut and dry. This is where the speculation and conjecture aka the juicy stuff comes in...
In August 2006, BioWare acquired the rights to use Perpetual Entertainments famous MMO tool set to create a new MMOG title. Interestingly, this is the first MMO title to come out of BioWare. The last time a major offline developer went MMO was with World of Warcraft... and we all know what happened there. Furthermore, In April 2007, BioWare announced the engine they would be using for the MMO - StreamBase's Stream Processing Engine. So it looks like BioWare are definitely developing a new MMORPG to hit shelves sometime after 2009/2010 but what is it? Nobody knows, but the rumour mill has been well and truly churning and this is where Lucas Arts come in.
Apparently (according to our favourite type of rumour - the unconfirmed type) BioWare have approached Lucas Arts and asked and/or offered to develop a Star Wars MMORPG based on Knights of the Old Republic! Now, I hate to be a party pooper, but don't Lucas Arts already have a fairly OK title in the MMO area? Oh no... SOE broke that in events which we gamers refer to as, "that which we do not discuss." A lot of people felt that the Kotor franchise was dead but I would like to remind everyone that Lucas Arts had/have said that they DO plan on revisiting the KotoR franchise in the future. I also want to point out that this is (as I have stated) the single most successful SW title to come out and also that the Science Fiction arm of the MMOG genre is still fresh and ripe for the picking. Again, SOE saw to that.
So basically, I've said in 8 paragraphs what I could say in a single sentence. Rumours suggest that BioWare are actively developing an MMORPG title based on Knights of the Old Republic. A lot of people would argue against that, favouring BioWares trusty fantasy games but I would say that the fantasy arm of the MMOG market is very much saturated and another title would do nobody any good. It makes sense for developers to start looking for new ways to conquer the genre and the most obvious next step is sci-fi.
Look at it this way. Perpetual are developing Star Trek Online. Stargate Worlds is on our doorsteps. There is even a rumour mill regarding Blizzards next-gen MMO being Starcraft Online. So as you can see, the sci-fi genre is very much picking up where fantasy has (semi) left off.
Would a KotoR MMO work?
When we look at these things, we can't expect a developer to just make the same game again. Frankly, if BioWare are wise they will take the same route Blizzard did and try to create a game that runs on as many PC solutions as possible. Personally, having played Kotor recently, I would say that Kotor has comparable graphics to World of Warcraft in many ways and 9,000,000 are paying to play the latter. Aside from this, BioWare will most liley go for average-to-good graphics in keeping with their usually philosophy. At least, I hope they do.
The game play of Kotor itself would not fit an MMORPG. The combat system is tuned for a single player experience and the interaction with the environment is tuned in the same way. In effect, an overhaul of the combat system and player-control system would need to happen to make it playable in an MMO environment. That said, Kotor was made almost 5 years ago so we can expect that if a new Kotor MMO was to be made, it would be very different.
Aside from the obvious, Kotor has an amazingly rich environment for an MMOG to be set in as long as it is set pre-Kotor2 and possible pre-Kotor1, or at lest during the events of the first game. We have 2 major factions - The Republic and The Sith. We've got a galaxy of worlds to explore. There is swoop racing which would be an interesting form of PvP. If the title was true to the game, there would only be Jedi and Sith and none of this, "I'm a bounty hunter," crap. Just pure force-based carnage.
Oh well - I'm getting slightly ahead of myself...
In short, BioWare are developing an MMO. Rumours suggest it is a Star Wars MMO set during the time of Kotor and frankly, I find this quite plausible. I'm excited but I'll try my hardest not to get myself worked up over this... until they announce it at least. Just another game to add to my, "obsess over," list. Of course, there is always the chance that we may see Kotor3 come out of Obsidian before we see a Kotor MMO. I hope not. I sincerely hope not.
