Daily Archives: October 21, 2008

You want the impossible.

“Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally different.”

Star Wars: The Old Republic will be similar to other MMOs but with several key innovations. Traditionally MMOs are built on three pillars; Exploration, Combat, and Progression. We at BioWare and LucasArts believe there is a fourth pillar: Story. Our mission is to create the best story-driven games in the world. We believe that the compelling, interactive storylines in Star Wars: The Old Republic are a significant innovation to MMOs and will offer an entertainment experience unlike any other.

“No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.”

Fight Fiercely, Order

Fret not, gentle reader, if m’colleague Melmoth’s casual, barely considered dismissal of WAR has struck you like a slap in the face from a game developer (I could never develop games, my arm would get far too tired from all the slapping that’s apparently mandatory). I haven’t changed my mind since last week, I’m still enjoying WAR, clocking up scenarios, popping into public quests, storming the odd Keep or two; still annoyed by the limitations of the quest log (an impromptu Gunbad group formed up last night, so I dropped all the general world quests, flew to Gunbad, picked up all the Gunbad quests, did a wing, completed a few, dropped the rest of the Gunbad quests, flew back to High Pass, picked up all the world quests again…)

If, however, you seek WAR, the whole WAR and nothing but the WAR, KiaSA possibly isn’t the blog for you; while Warhammer is currently my main source of blogging inspiration, muses are lithesome and ephemeral things (the mythological muses, this is, not the band. Though Matt Bellamy could possibly do with eating a few more pies.) Even if I keep playing WAR for a while, there will be times when I just can’t think of much to write about it, or even MMOGs in general; I previously blogged at “MMOG Musings”, and one of the driving factors for moving here instead was going through a particularly non-MMOG-y time. Rather than rust into posting-immobility, I thought it was better to at least keep momentum going by writing about other things, hence at KiaSA we cover the whole gamut of human experience. MMORPGs, MMOFPSs, other MMOGs, online (but not massively multiplayer) games, offline games, generally offline games with an online component, generally online games but with an offline mode, you name it, every facet of life on the planet. Books (game novelisations, or books about gaming), television programmes (that ideally feature games), films (so long as someone plays a game at some point), music (why, the very post after this one is going to be all about music… possibly in games, admittedly), comedy (why did the chicken cross the road? Because it was a tier 3 player in a tier 1 zone and wanted to get to the other side, *badum tish*), I could go on. Though don’t ask me to.

Having said all that… scenarios, eh? Is it me, or are Order a bit slow to get off the mark sometimes? The scenario starts and there’s only six people there, and the rest sort of dawdle in over the next couple of minutes apologising for the delay, only the bus was late and they overslept and stuff, and they have a bit of a look around then amble off towards the objectives taking in the view. Destruction on the other hand are all spiky bundles of growling hatred and really jolly cross about all sorts of things, so what we need to counterbalance that is a rousing fight anthem. With apologies to Tom Lehrer I’d like to propose:

Fight fiercely, Order, fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.

How we will celebrate our victory,
We shall invite the whole team up for tea. (How jolly!)
Hurl that Chosen into the sea (of lava),
And fight, fight, fight!

Fight fiercely, Order, fight, fight, fight!
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Oh, fellas, do not let Sigmar down,
Be of stout heart and true.

Come on, chaps, fight for Order’s glorious name!
Won’t it be peachy if we win the game? (Oh, goody!)
Let’s try not to injure them,
But fight, fight, fight!
Let’s not be rough, though!
Fight, fight, fight!
And do fight fiercely!
Fight, fight, fight!