If you never bothered with BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO because you didn’t feel like paying a subscription fee, starting Thursday November 15 you can play for free. Without signing up for a subscription you’ll be able to play as any class and experience all the base game’s level 1 through 50 story content.
Naturally there are plenty of restrictions if you’re a free user. You can only join a few Warzones per week, for example, which are The Old Republic’s player versus player arenas. If, while leveling from 1 to 50, you feel like participating in more Warzones, you don’t need to subscribe. Passes to access content like this more frequently can be purchased individually. These passes can be gifted or sold to other players for in-game currency, so directly purchasing from BioWare isn’t the only method of acquisition.
Microtransactions like this can be made for a number of things, including mini pets, cosmetic items, bags of special items and Legacy system bonuses. Free players will also have their number of available character slots, item storage space, and ability to equip rarer gear restricted, and BioWare will implement ways to bypass those restrictions with paid purchases.
You’ll make these purchases with a virtual currency called Cartel Coins. These can be purchased with real money in packs from $4.99 for 450 Coins to $39.99 for 5500 Coins. If you already have an account, you can see if you’ve accumulated any free Coins so far by logging in on the official SWTOR site, clicking over to ‘My Account’ and then clicking ‘Cartel Coins’.
If you’re still paying a subscription fee for The Old Republic, BioWare says you shouldn’t expect much of a change on November 15 aside from a likely increase in the number of players running around on your server. If at some point you decide to stop paying a subscription fee, you’ll still retain ‘Preferred Status’, which means you’ll keep some of your subscription perks, including cargo hold storage access, access to chat, the ability to sprint and more ways to trade.
Also on November 15 BioWare will launch additional content in update 1.5, which among other features includes a new level 50 quest area called Sector X on Belsavis with a storyline that involves the Dread Masters. You’ll also be able to complete a series of quests that begins in Sector X to acquire the snarky assassin droid HK-51. While this content will be available to subscribers, free-to-play players will need to pay to see it.
Overall it seems free-to-play players will get access to a lot of content without paying anything, though the restrictions on equippable items and storage space seem pretty severe. We’ll have to wait until the full free system goes live next week to determine if free-to-play in SWTOR is actually fun or just an irritating series of reminders that you should pay real money to keep playing.
It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.
As a result, free-to-play players will now get a second quickslot bar, as well as the ability to run five Warzones each week. Under the original restrictions, there was no second bar for free-to-play accounts and only three Warzone battles could be played every seven days.
Schubert went on to address the worry that the limitations on Warzones will make queues longer, saying that if anything they should get shorter. He explained, "Our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.
"That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.
"It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic."
Also addressed in the post is the potential for accounts to receive preferred status. Any former subscriber whose account has locked will automatically get preferred status, otherwise any F2P player who makes a single purchase through the game's official site will also have their account upgraded to preferred status.
Preferred status offers a range of benefits, ranging from increased server queue priority and an extra crew skill slot to obtaining the sprint ability at level 1 alongside access to your cargo hold.
No official launch date has been unveiled for the free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it's expected to be available before the year is out.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic.
As a result, free-to-play players will now get a second quickslot bar, as well as the ability to run five Warzones each week. Under the original restrictions, there was no second bar for free-to-play accounts and only three Warzone battles could be played every seven days.
Schubert went on to address the worry that the limitations on Warzones will make queues longer, saying that if anything they should get shorter. He explained, "Our subscriber base likely will not shrink much, and for some of our competitors, converting to Free-to-Play has resulted in a subscriber increase! Which means that Warzone queues should likely see improvement from what you experience in game, and at minimum be relatively unchanged in experience.
"That being said, one of our golden rules is that the Free-to-Play experience should not cheapen the experience for paying subscribers. If it turns out that the Free-to-Play conversion results in a degraded Warzone experience once we go live for subscribers, you can rest assured that we will quickly make adjustments to the system to ensure that subscribers have an optimal experience.
"It is important conversely that the subscription offers subscribers strong, tangible benefits over the Free-to-Play experience. We value our subscribers greatly, and they are crucial to the success of Star Wars: the Old Republic."
Also addressed in the post is the potential for accounts to receive preferred status. Any former subscriber whose account has locked will automatically get preferred status, otherwise any F2P player who makes a single purchase through the game's official site will also have their account upgraded to preferred status.
Preferred status offers a range of benefits, ranging from increased server queue priority and an extra crew skill slot to obtaining the sprint ability at level 1 alongside access to your cargo hold.
No official launch date has been unveiled for the free-to-play option for Star Wars: The Old Republic, but it's expected to be available before the year is out.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
The next entry in the Mass Effect franchise will feature a hero who doesn't resemble Commander Shepherd in any way, Bioware has revealed.
Speaking to VG247, BioWare Montreal producer Fabrice Condominas confirmed that while the series will continue beyond the current trilogy, it will be a completely separate experience.
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We don’t want to make ‘Shepard 2′, or Mass Effect 4 with like, ‘oh there’s no more Shepard but you’re a soldier in the universe’.
He explained, "There is one thing we are absolutely sure of – there will be no more Shepard, and the trilogy is over.
"This is really our starting point. Now the Mass Effect universe is vast, and very, very rich. So at this point in time, we don’t even know what kind of time frame we’re going to be in. All we’re doing is more gathering ideas from the teams, gathering feedback to see several things.
"So first, we don’t want to make ‘Shepard 2′, or Mass Effect 4 with like, ‘oh there’s no more Shepard but you’re a soldier in the universe’. So this will be a very, very different context for sure, and nothing has been decided on the rest."
While nothing else is known about the next entry in the franchise, Bioware hasn't given up supporting Mass Effect 3 just yet; the company recently announced the release date and price of the Omega DLC, which is set to be the largest expansion for the game yet.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
While those who opt out of subscribing will get all the game's story content for free, as a rough rule you'll basically be able to do most things three times per week; three PvE Flashpoint runs, three PvP Warzone battles and three Space Missions each week. You'll be able to buy Weekly Passes for each though in order to get unlimited access. There will be restrictions on both Cargo Bay and Inventory storage which can be removed using the new Cartel Coins currency.
There's no right to run Operations under the free package, so you'll need to buy a Weekly Pass if you want to get your hands on the best loot. Having said that, according to the chart you'll be unable to equip "most purple items unless a license is purchased", so it may not appeal that much to you anyway.
Most of the other restrictions are essentially matters of convenience; those who sub will get priority on login queues, a shorter Quick Travel cooldown and the ability to use the Emergency Fleet Pass to instantly return to their faction's space station. You'll also only get one Crew Skill slot with the free-to-play version of the game, and get a limited number of Field Revivals to use when you die in the middle of nowhere.
The free-to-play version of Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced back in July in response to continually falling subscription numbers. No fixed date has been given for when the free-to-play option will become available. It's still listed as "later this fall", but the game's current sub model will continue to be offered for players who want unlimited access to all the title's content.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
While those who opt out of subscribing will get all the game's story content for free, as a rough rule you'll basically be able to do most things three times per week; three PvE Flashpoint runs, three PvP Warzone battles and three Space Missions each week. You'll be able to buy Weekly Passes for each though in order to get unlimited access. There will be restrictions on both Cargo Bay and Inventory storage which can be removed using the new Cartel Coins currency.
There's no right to run Operations under the free package, so you'll need to buy a Weekly Pass if you want to get your hands on the best loot. Having said that, according to the chart you'll be unable to equip "most purple items unless a license is purchased", so it may not appeal that much to you anyway.
Most of the other restrictions are essentially matters of convenience; those who sub will get priority on login queues, a shorter Quick Travel cooldown and the ability to use the Emergency Fleet Pass to instantly return to their faction's space station. You'll also only get one Crew Skill slot with the free-to-play version of the game, and get a limited number of Field Revivals to use when you die in the middle of nowhere.
The free-to-play version of Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced back in July in response to continually falling subscription numbers. No fixed date has been given for when the free-to-play option will become available. It's still listed as "later this fall", but the game's current sub model will continue to be offered for players who want unlimited access to all the title's content.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and former SWTOR player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Star Wars: The Old Republic lead designer Daniel Erickson has left BioWare. Erickson made the news official on Twitter, writing “As part of leaving BioWare I'm officially starting a twitter account for job hunt and design thoughts.”
Erickson previously sparked speculation about his departure after adding "actively looking for new opportunities" to his LinkedIn page last month. He follows recent BioWare departures including The Old Republic executive producer Rich Vogel, who left BioWare in July, as well as BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuck, who retired from the company last month.
Bioware has confirmed that its Mass Effect Trilogy bundle will include some DLC, but how much will depend on which platform you buy it on.
According to Eurogamer, PC gamers will be getting the best deal in terms of included DLC, while it still isn't clear exactly what PS3 players will receive.
PC copies of Mass Effect Trilogy will apparently come with Mass Effect's Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station add-ons included free of charge, alongside Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network DLC which unlocks the squadmate Zaeed as well as extra missions and weapons. The PC version will also get Mass Effect 3's online pass.
The Xbox 360 version meanwhile won't come with any of the original Mass Effect DLC, but will get both Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network content and also the final game's online pass.
In terms of what PS3 players should expect, Bioware has apparently refused to divulge exactly what will be included on-disc but promised that more info would be coming "soon".
In addition, the game's release date has also been tweaked; it's now being released in America on November 6 for Xbox 360 and PC, while the date for the PS3 version is still "TBA". No release information for territories outside of America has been announced.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
BioWare has announced the Mass Effect Trilogy Compilation, bringing the original Mass Effect to PlayStation 3 for the first time. The set will combine all three Mass Effect titles into one package and will launch on Xbox 360 and PC on November 6th for $59.99. A PlayStation 3 version will follow, though a specific date hasn’t been announced just yet.
BioWare will also release the original Mass Effect as a standalone title via PlayStation Network, though an exact date hasn’t been announced for that either. This marks the first time Mass Effect, which was published by Microsoft Studios originally, will make its way to Sony’s console. IGN has learned that the standalone version will include Trophy support.
Separately, BioWare announced N7 Day, a “worldwide celebration” that will take place on November 7th. The day will include in-game, online and live events, and more details will be coming soon on MassEffect.com.
Mass Effect was originally released on Xbox 360 in November of 2007, followed by a PC version in May 2008. Mass Effect 2 launched on Xbox 360 and PC in January 2010, followed by a PlayStation 3 version a year later. Mass Effect 3 launched for all three platforms on March 6th of this year, and a Wii U version will follow on November 18th.
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.
BioWare has announced Dragon Age 3: Inquisition. Set to arrive in late 2013, Dragon Age 3 will be built on a new RPG engine "underpinned" by DICE's Frostbite 2 technology.
“The Dragon Age team has been working on Dragon Age 3: Inquisition for almost two years now,” said BioWare Edmonton and Montreal general manager Aaryn Flynn. “We’ve been poring over player feedback from past games and connecting directly with our fans. They haven’t held back, so we’re not either. With Dragon Age 3: Inquisition, we want to give fans what they’re asking for – a great story with choices that matter, a massive world to explore, deep customization and combat that is both tactical and visceral.”
“At the same time,” Flynn added, “we know we need new technology to truly make this vision become fully realized. And we’ve been working with DICE to make Frostbite 2 the foundation for the engine that is going to power Dragon Age 3.”
The title appears to confirm a leaked questionnaire that emerged last month, with details suggesting that “The empire of Orlais is riven by civil war; the Chantry is divided; the Templar order has broken away; the Mage circles have rebelled. Some unseen force is manipulating events, bringing about disorder and destruction. Out of this confusion emerges The Inquisition.” According to that leak, players will take the role as the leader of the Inquisition and can make their player “a rogue, warrior or mage and set up your crew from up to ten complex companions to lead them against those who attack you by systematically spying on, revealing and destroying them."
Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will apparently launch without a single-player campaign, according to developer Bioware Victory.
In an interview with PC Gamer, the company's general manager John Van Caneghem explained that “co-operative and competitive” skirmishes would be the main focus of the title initially, with other modes being added later based on community feedback.
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We decided to choose Generals as the first set of games we build under the universe, but we’ll be expanding after that, like Tiberium and Red Alert as well as some others as well.
Speaking about the potential of a story campaign being one such mode, Van Caneghem said, "It is something we haven’t announced yet how we’re going to do it." He explained that one of the main benefits of the game being online was that it facilitated the easy testing of new play styles, claiming, "As a live service I think the exciting part is you can try things. You can see what the community wants, you can give it a shot, you can put it up for a weekend and see how it goes, develop towards what the fans like."
While he didn't comment on EA's decision to make the game free-to-play, he did reveal that Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will be the first in a new series of online C&C games that explore the series' history.
"We decided to choose Generals as the first set of games we build under the universe, but we’ll be expanding after that, like Tiberium and Red Alert as well as some others as well," he said. "Generals 2 was the first one, and it was one of the biggest sellers, as well as the fanbase has been asking for it for some time."
He rounded up the interview by explaining that Bioware Victory is keen for the upcoming RTS game to break onto the e-sports scene. To this end, alongside multiplayer deathmatch and co-operative modes, Van Caneghem claimed that, "We’re really going to run the gambit of what people enjoy in a multiplayer environment.
"I don’t think we’re making a list of the features yet, but I think you can basically make a list of the assumed ones that you’d need to be an e-sports game, and it’s definitely part of the plan," he added.
Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will release as a free-to-play title on PC sometime in 2013, but you can register your interest for the beta now.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant and once almost died trying to build a home-made Tesla Coil. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
BioWare and EA recently made the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic would shift from a subscription-only model to free-to-play. The adjusted model, which will take affect this November or December, will let anyone start up TOR and play to level 50 with a character class without having to sign up for a monthly fee.
“The market is clearly becoming a free-to-play market in the MMO space,” said Matthew Bromberg, general manager of BioWare Austin. “It appears that’s the direction the whole industry is going. Our own research told us that a significant percentage of the folks who have left the game, left because of the commitment to the subscription model. It’s not that surprising if you think about it because the dynamic in an MMO is essentially one in which you subscribe and then you’re waiting for new content, and people don’t feel good about waiting.”
The Old Republic started out very strong when it launched late last year, accumulating as many as 1.7 million subscribers. But then players started to leave in big numbers, so the number of active subscribers dropped below one million, though according to EA, is still “well over” 500,000. That’s still a lot of players, far more than most MMOs ever attract, but also a lot of players lost in under one year, and a trend that could have potentially continued without a change to the payment model.
EA is promising more frequent content updates from this point on, which will be free to those who decide to stay subscribed, but must be purchased by players leveling for free. Bromberg says the updates will introduce content that’s more social in nature. “Group content, Operations, Warzones, Flashpoints, events as opposed to focusing primarily cinematic story-driven single-player content.” Bromberg also teased a different style of space mission, saying, “we think there’s an opportunity beyond space on rails to do something really cool.” It sounds like that new style of space mission wouldn’t be ready until sometime next year.
The more solo-play-focused content is still on the way, with a level cap raise and new quests on the planet of Makeb scheduled to be released at some point in 2012, but this type of content isn’t exactly easy to produce. “The power and strength of the game, a lot of it was in this epic story. In fact it was so engaging that people played through it much more quickly than we’d imagined. The biggest strength of the game can also be a challenge as people get to the end. They got to the end much more quickly and we weren’t prepared for that. And so there was this lag time. That created some issues for us, clearly.”
One of the issues was development cost. “It’s hugely expensive. It’s cinematic, it’s lush, there’s voice over, it’s unbelievable. The amount of content available at launch was extraordinary. You have folks who’ve played through the levels, and what an online service has to provide is grouping. All of our research shows that people who have friends in game and play with people in social content, love the game and stay. If you remain a single player, you won’t stay. Our focus, in addition to extending the story which we will continue doing, is giving those players who want to play in groups with other people something fresh and new to do all the time.”
Bromberg said the behavior of a typical TOR player was to pick a class and stick with it through the story before branching out and setting up new characters. “That’s what drove the focused consumption of all that content. I think we’re still continuing to see that. Which is why I think it will be interesting in the free to play model, there are so many more people that we can open up to the story.”
Because The Old Republic wasn’t initially designed as a free-to-play game, it’s been an especially complicated process for EA and BioWare to figure what to charge for and what to keep free. “You try to find a balance whereby the limitations don’t impact the fun of the game. When you hit a certain level of engagement you’re going to naturally make that calculus in your head that it makes more sense to subscribe.”
Subscribers get unlimited access, while players without subscriptions won’t have unlimited access to PvP Warzones, will have fewer inventory and bank slots, as well as other limitations. “Ultimately you’ll be able to buy everything individually. But in the first phase, not everything will be purchaseable. But we’ll get there over time.” A microtransaction-driven Cartel Market will also be implemented, which will offer up cosmetic items, boosts and convenience items and tiered treasure chests that could contain rare vanity items.
As developers and publishers continue to experiment with pricing models, it’s not rare to hear some say pricing model design these days is game design. Bromberg pointed out the potential flaws in equating the two. “You don’t define a game by how people pay for it. I don’t think people who design games think about it that way. All the principles of game design, it has to be fun, it has to be engaging, it has to be social, all those things are true. And when you’re designing with free-to-play in mind, it does impact how you’re designing the game. I do think there’s been a little bit of an overemphasis on it, especially with the business model. Game designers don’t design games because of the business model is, they design because they love doing it. [The Old Republic] being free doesn’t really mean anything, you have to want to play. Especially in a crowded world. Especially with all these options. People don’t play something just because it’s free.”
Moving forward, Bromberg said a key factor in The Old Republic’s future will be an ongoing willingness to be flexible with the payment structure. “You never know how precisely it’s going to work until you begin interacting with consumers. You have to tweak as you go, and you have to tweak every day. That’s a very different discipline than a subscription model where you’re watching over time and it’s a bit slower. We’ve got to get in and look at the data every day and make sure we’ve got that balance right. I wouldn’t be shocked at all to see it change a lot. How much is too much, how much is too little? You can only figure that out by looking at data. You design by looking at data to begin with, but especially for us, this will be new. I’d expect there to be a lot of changes.”
It’s not easy to tell a good story in an MMO. While cut-scene story sequences of games like BioWare’s The Old Republic and Funcom’s The Secret World are more effective at evoking specific emotional responses, they don’t feel like especially social experiences. They tell very rigid stories that make you feel like you’re playing a single-player game, which is great for a change of pace after a round of questing, but can also take away from one of the chief benefits of the genre: the sense of community.
ArenaNet mixes numerous styles of story delivery, offering up highly structured main story content but also events, which are basically dynamic open quests that occur out in the main game world. When an event takes place, there’s no need to read a lengthy text box or ensure the proper quest is active and at the proper stage of completion. After arriving at an event area the quest is essentially auto-activated, allowing anyone to start fighting, collecting, escorting, or whatever the objective happens to be.
“A good dynamic event is going to bring people in just through the nature of what’s going on through visual effects, audio effects, what the NPCs are talking about, what the story is,” said ArenaNet’s Mike Zadorojny. “People are just naturally interested because they’re curious, they want to see what’s happening. Also because that’s where you’re going to get Karma, so there’s a reward system built into it to encourage people to go along that path as well.”
Of course simply dangling the carrot of Karma in front of players isn’t going to be reason enough to keep them coming back throughout the entirety of the leveling process. If the event involves staring at bunnies for twenty minutes, really ugly bunnies, chances are nobody is going to bother sticking around to earn the rewards. Zadorojny explained how the team goes about building the events to ensure the action is as much of a motivating factor as the rewards.
“We actually had the early dynamic event system working in the Guild Wars 1 engine before we could even work on Guild Wars 2. That’s how long we’ve been iterating on this process. A straight collection event isn’t necessarily exciting. A straight kill count event isn’t necessarily exciting. But when you layer in additional things, like you’re using a gun to collect something, or you’re using a gun that transforms creatures and then from there you’re collecting items. When you start layering additional mechanics it becomes more engaging to the player.”
ArenaNet links events with bits of fiction so it feels like one connected storyline, even as outcomes change depending on whether or not objectives are met. In the Asura starting zone, for example, there’s an Asura trying to repair a gate so she can travel into an ancient laboratory. “When she actually gets down there, there’s an event that basically escorts her through the location,” said Zadorojny, “and there’s a side objective where if you find these extra data crystals you can give them to her. If you give her enough data crystals, the follow-up event is different. If you don’t do the side objective, when she gets to the end there are golems that don’t recognize her as the owner of this facility so it puts her in a stasis field and players are defending her from the golems. If you give her enough crystals, she can fake the system into thinking she’s the original owner, and so the secondary event is no longer about protecting her from the golems, it has to do with destroyers that are coming up and causing problems. So you’re doing something with the golems instead of against them.”
In another event chain on the same map, a reactor explodes and it’s up to the group to help an NPC clean it up. If everyone manages to protect the NPC through the entire cleaning process, he explodes and a gigantic fire elemental stomps into the area and starts attacking all nearby. If the group fails to protect him, he gets captured by enemy forces and turned into a hostile golem, and his ensuing destructive rampage needs to be stopped.
“If you’re doing an escort that leads you into a new area and [the NPCs] set up shop, there’s a good chance that events are going to spawn off of those locations. Based on the states of the world, who’s located where, where safe havens are, you can start seeing this spider web of events that are trailing off to various other locations.”
ArenaNet doesn’t only allow one group at a time to experience this type of content. Many can join in throughout the course of an event, and that follow along with stories in a social environment with fewer restrictions when compared to many other MMOs. “We have a scaling system in place that handles a lot of this,” said Zadorojny, which is used to boost the difficulty level of encounters as more players join, adding in things like additional attack types for bosses and minions, to ensure encounters can’t simply be steamrolled over by superior numbers.
But there’s far more than quest structures to consider when telling stories in an MMO and setting a tone, as designer Ree Soesbee explained. “We want [players] to go find things and when they find something Asura kids telling jokes or a pirate house or just a really gorgeous vista we want them to feel like they’ve accomplished or they’ve discovered. And if you go there and it’s meh, then you walk off. It’s much cooler if you go there and these NPCs are reacting as well, they’re doing stuff.”
“It creates the idea that they’ve got their own lives,” said ArenaNet’s Jeff Grubb. “For our main cities we really wanted to give them a sense of place and a sense of being alive and we did that with a lot of voice over that is not directly tied to what you’re doing. You may encounter it and you may not encounter it, but that has a feel for the spontaneity.”
Depending on which are you start, ArenaNet hopes to preserve the distinct personalities of each race, from the warlike Charr to the hyper-intelligent, overconfident Asura. “The Asura are brilliant and confident and irritating,” said Grubb. “They’re a race of mad scientists as a result.”
It was important to ArenaNet to give all players a sense of all races, so it’s not necessary to play an Asura to know what the Asura are like. “In Charr lands you can still get an understanding of what the Asura are about,” said Grubb. “So I’ve played Charr and I know everything about the legions and I meet this little Asura guy and I go oh, that’s different. What’s that? Hey he’s smart. Whoa he insulted me. Hey what’s his story? You get interested in what their story is because those NPCs throughout the world are conceptualized from something that is really potently distilled so that it is a reflection of that. Then maybe you go and play as an Asura.”
To tell more directed stories, ArenaNet uses a personal story system threaded throughout each zone, which takes you to instanced areas and uses voiced dialogue sequences to tell the most important parts of the story, more in the style of a single-player game. These stories won’t be the same for everyone, but tailored to the decisions made through character creation as well as decisions made at crucial moments throughout leveling and questing. “You get three, three or four choices right off the bat,” said Soesbee. “More than that if you count things like your race and your class. Those things each spawn a little storyline.”
For example, if a player picks Sylvari and specifies during creation that the character dreamed of a white stag, a white stag is involved in personal story quests, and it might lead to a meeting with an NPC that would never otherwise happen. “You get this revolving cast of NPCs and situations that is very mutable based on what you’ve done in the world,” said Soesbee. “So either you’re going to go save that guy and fight a big boss who is holding him prisoner, or you’re going to save the town and the fight is going to be you against a thousand little guys who are trying to burn the town.”
Soesbee explained how ArenaNet had to be careful about how to tell these stories without fumbling the emotional impact. “We don’t want to tell you what your character feels. That’s kind of a no-no if I went up to you and said this guy died, you should feel sad. We try to just set the scene so that you do feel sad. We try to show that death or show that event in whatever emotional context it is and let you feel what you would feel about it and just tell the story around you and let you interact with it as much as possible.”
“We’re not above manipulating your emotions,” added Grubb, “but we do recognize that you can feel different ways about it.”
“That’s one way that the choices in the stories and in the personal stories can be very useful to us,” continued Soesbee, “because we show you two NPCs and one is really funny and one is really serious. And then we say one of them is going to die. They’re being attacked. Which one do you save? Well we’re not saying you have to feel strongly about this funny guy because you might pick the other one, but because you’ve chosen which one you like, we know that you are going to be more invested in that story of saving that guy.”
ArenaNet plans to build in more events and story-driven content following launch, though so far is only giving hints as to what that content might involve. “We’ve laid out a lot of hooks,” said Grubb. “I came in on end of Factions so I worked on Nightfall and Eye of the North. I did a lot of research on the basics of the world to figure out okay, why is this happening? What have we said? How does that help create the basis for new stories? One thing that Ree mentioned early in her movement of the world which was sort of like our story manifesto was that we refer to the various elder dragons. We talked about a sea dragon, just one line. We haven’t talked about it since. The fans haven’t forgotten about it. And will we talk about it? I don’t know. If we come up with you know good stories for it, yes we will.”
We’ll know for sure if ArenaNet’s take on story implementation is ultimately a good one overall after the game launches on August 28.
Ultima Forever is an interesting experiment for EA. Based on Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar – a game first released in 1985 and an RPG classic, developer BioWare Mythic is bringing Forever to both PC and iPad, with players able to move from one to the other as they choose. And the real kicker? It’s free-to-play too.
Anthony Gallegos had the first details a few weeks ago, but for those of you craving more on this interesting project, we've done a follow-up Q&A with executive producer Jeff Skalski.
IGN: What's exciting to you about going free-to-play with this title?
Jeff Skalski: The amount of players who will be able to experience Ultima Forever and perhaps even their first Ultima game. For those reading, you have no reason not to jump in and have a look!
IGN: What parts of the game will be free and what will be available for purchase?
Jeff Skalski: You’ll find no lightning bolts here, so keep playing to your heart’s content. I never wanted to kick players out of our game and say, “Hey, come back in 3 hours. Goodbye.” The game is wide open. You’ll need to level up to take on new challenges, but all of that can be earned by just playing the game. As for what’s available to purchase, quite a bit actually. You can buy new vanity gear to stand out in the crowd, or even a new weapon that has those stats you’ve been hunting for. Need a few more healing pots or a little more inventory space, we got you covered. Want early access to your favourite classes’ abilities? We’ll even let you snag those too. The only one thing we won’t sell is virtue. You have to earn that! ;)
IGN: Cross-platform play is a great idea, but can you tell us a little about the challenges of creating a single game that caters to the strengths of two very different platforms/control systems?
Jeff Skalski: Great question, no doubt it’s been hard, but so exciting in the end. We went for depth in gameplay with U4E. Not a one night affair experience. It is an online RPG adventure game at its core, so we just made sure when it came to controls, interface design, and combat pacing that we first thought of the touch consumer and then how would that play best with a more traditional experience such as a keyboard and mouse. These conversations happened in parallel and will continue as we continue to grow and build out U4E.
IGN: Ultima Forever is a "reimagining of the original rich world". Is this more a thematic reimagining, or will you be basing the new game on the same locations, characters and enemies?
Jeff Skalski: For those familiar with the ’85 classic Ultima IV, no doubt you’ll recognize certain NPCs, locations and some of the key moments you took in proving you were an Avatar. There will also be things new for you to explore and experience. We took liberty to make changes as needed, such as going from single player to multiplayer, and turn based to real time combat. The story has been fast forwarded 21 years and a new leader has taken the throne. Past friends have aged, but new friends are waiting to be met.
IGN: Will players once again be playing only as a human?
Jeff Skalski: Yes, we will have Human only classes. We are currently targeting two at launch with the remaining six releasing every few months afterwards.
The two classes that will be available at launch, we presume.
IGN: Players are now used to creating characters that can be good, evil or somewhere in between. How do you think they'll respond to the central goal of this game, which is to be virtuous?
Jeff Skalski: I hope they find it refreshing and engaging. It’s good to go back and remember your roots. Ultima IV did so much for the RPG genre. It inspired so many franchises still enjoyed today. I hope Ultima Forever puts that back into the forefront of gamers who never got to experience the original.
IGN: Can you give us some examples of quests or gameplay based on specific virtues?
Jeff Skalski: It starts from the moment you create your character. The gypsy will look at you and pose her questions. Your answers will dictate your starting virtue levels and the color of your first set of gear. (For those new to Ultima, each of the 8 virtues is tied to a specific color.) All throughout the rest of the game you’ll stumble across NPCs with moral quandaries seeking advice, but most importantly how you treat other real players will influence your virtue gain.
Concept art of the gypsy.
IGN: Can you give us some examples of difficult moral choices the player may have to make?
Jeff Skalski: While travelling through town a woman stops you and asks if you can go find her husband. He’s been missing for 6 days and has not returned from his last adventure to a nearby cave. You accept the quest and go exploring. While travelling through the caves you stumble across a corpse of a fallen warrior and upon searching it you uncover it was this woman’s husband, but also in his pockets is a letter from his mistress. You return to the woman, now widow, and are given a choice. Do you hand the letter over to the woman and tell her, “Your husband has died, but no worries; he was a lying bastard who was cheating on you anyways.” (Honesty) or rip the letter behind your back and tell her, “Your husband died an honorable death. I’m sorry for your loss.” (Compassion) Neither answer is wrong or right, but it’s your choice to decide what virtues you lean towards and ultimately the path you’ll take to prove worthy of Avatarhood.
IGN: Will the multiplayer be co-op only, or will there be PVP as well? How many players can quest together?
Jeff Skalski: Multiplayer will be co-op only, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with your group while playing. i.e. Activating a trap at the wrong moment. ;) As for the group size, it’s a total of four.
IGN: Can you tell me a little about the game's combat system?
Jeff Skalski: Sure, think Legend of the Zelda: Link to the Past, but you have 4-5 abilities instead of just swing. Our combat is positional based, and by flanking or hitting an enemy from behind you increase your chance to crit.
So what do you think? Are you looking forward to Ultima Forever? Let us know in the comments. Oh, and anyone interested in taking part in the upcoming closed beta can sign up at the official website.
