EA Slams WoW, Promotes The Old Republic
Electronic Arts has gone on the offensive in the promotion of its upcoming MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Head of EA Games, Frank Gibeau, recently criticized genre heavyweight World of Warcraft’s game mechanics, and said that The Old Republic will revolutionise online gaming.
“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,” he told IndustryGamers. “[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."
Despite taking subtle swipes at Blizzard, Gibeau admitted that his company has learned from its rival as well.
"There are things that they do that are spectacular, and that we've taken lessons from," he admitted. "They will feel familiar to players. You're going to come into a Star Wars environment in a Star Wars IP, a Star Wars adventure. You're going to be coming into a BioWare story. It's the first time an MMO has actually had a story.”
Critics have expressed doubt over the long-term validity of an MMO that relies on an overarching story for the majority of its thrills. Once people finish that storyline, they argue, they will have no reason to stay in the game. Players routinely put thousands of hours into their favourite MMOs, and questions have arisen as to how Bioware propose to keep a story-driven game interesting for that long.
In any event, we’re likely to get our answer later this year, as The Old Republic has been slated for a 2011 release.
Feed RSS
