The next year’s going to be a very good one for gamers who are Star Wars fanatics. LucasArts–the game development division of the Star Wars empire–has a handful of major releases brewing, including the long-awaited Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. The Old Republic‘s being developed in conjunction with Bioware, who know a thing or two about crafting incredible narrative universe. Daniel Erickson, the writing director of the BioWare Austin studio answered a few question about exploring the ancient history of the Star Wars universe.
What does Star Wars mean to you? Aside from a job? How has it inspired you as a piece of fiction?
Star Wars, specifically The Empire Strikes Back, had a profound effect on me as a child. The strong characters, the essentially dark storyline filled with bright moments of wonder, the twist, the sedate ending–these things changed the way I thought about stories and would influence all of my writing as I got older.
Do you think there’s an essential difference in how kids and adults experience the Star Wars mythos? How do you think that plays out?
I don’t think there really is. Star Wars is essentially the same movie to me as an adult as it was when I first saw it, though I can see the gears moving behind it more easily. Great works you love as a kid tend to be far more mature in their storytelling approach than the candy-coated pop pieces that are so often pitched to the younger set. From the old original fairy tales that captivated children for hundreds of years to Pixar’s movies today, it’s by expressing strong emotions and characters in broadly understandable ways–not by talking down or just doing pratfalls–that you capture both young imaginations and older ones.
When were you able to share Star Wars with your children or significant others? What was their reaction?
I’ve gotten the dubious honor of introducing Star Wars to several people over the years, both friends and significant others, who had never seen it before. What always strikes me is how, never having seen the movie, there was still a base Star Wars impression in each person’s consciousness. Star Wars is such an essential part of American culture that even someone who’s never seen even five minutes of the films knows Darth Vader, Princess Leia and the name Skywalker.
It seems that the test in The Old Republic MMO is that you have to make the pre-history of Star Wars feel familiar yet new, too. What are the challenges there?
Writing for Star Wars is always a delicate piece of surgery. We must carefully carve out the archetypes, rhythms and overlaying themes of the movies and then place them in a completely new body of work. Players want to feel what it’s like to live as Han Solo did but they don’t want to be constrained to his experience or attitudes. The miracle of the MMORPG is that we can allow them to do just that by making their own decision and crafting a very personal story.
(More on Techland: Star Wars: The Old Republic Gets Sith Purebloods and Other New Playable Races)
Clone Wars is the most visible piece of Star Wars entertainment now? What do you hope the experience will be in your game for the players who come here from watching the show?
One of the things I’ve stressed since the beginning of the project is that this was to be everybody’s Star Wars. Old fogeys like myself who remember the first trilogy, second generation people who really came in with Episode 1 and the new generation who connect most strongly to Clone Wars. So we’ve made it a mission to celebrate all of the Star Wars canon and make sure that we pull the best aliens, themes and fantasies from all of the major productions.
The Old Republic‘s combat uses cover, which is the first time the mechanic’s appeared in a massively multiplayer online game. Why did you feel that you needed this feature on TOR?
Many parts of our combat system were not originally planned. With so much innovation just in designing and scripting the incredibly complex quest structures of BioWare’s single player games in an MMO environment, we had a huge amount of work on our hands. Everything we do gets held up by Creative Director James Ohlen to the “Does this look/feel like Star Wars?” light. When we put in traditional MMO combat–with two people standing in front of each other and playing unconnected animations–it failed the test hard. So James and our combat designers, especially Lead Systems Designer Damion Shubert and Associate Lead Designer Emmanuel Lusinchi, sat down to not only make Lightsaber combat look dynamic and exciting, but to make the gun classes look like they were in the movies. The answer was obvious. When you look at any big gun battle in Star Wars, there it is: cover. Implementing that answer successfully would be the work of years.
What have you been able to do with the dialogue and characteristics of TOR’s all-new characters that you would’t have been able to do with Luke, Han or other established Star Wars characters?
With the established characters you can only retell the same stories. Or, at best, extend the existing stories. And while those stories are beloved and comforting, it doesn’t give Players the sort of ownership that building their own Star Wars legacy from scratch does. Our Smugglers don’t have to be redeemed if the don’t want to. Our Jedi Knight could decide that the dark side sounds like a good deal. The Players get to decide where the story goes and that’s only possible if the Players own the characters.
The Old Republic is kind of a reunion for BioWare and LucasArts, coming six years after the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Xbox game. Will there be any Easter eggs or any overt connection to KOTOR 1?
There are heavy connections to KOTOR and KOTOR2, which are both important pieces in our timeline. All of the major unanswered questions will be addressed and although it isn’t necessary to have played the games to enjoy the content there will be lots of fantastic things to discover for long time fans.
MMOs are notorious for dribbling out a little bit of empowerment at a time. How long into the game will it take for you to wield Force powers as a Jedi?
Less than five minutes. We don’t believe in killing rats for ten hours and we don’t believe players dream of being anything less than heroic.
What’s the most pivotal moment in the prequel trilogy for you? In the original trilogy?
In the prequel trilogy, it’s the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. He’s the one that brings Anakin into the order and it’s arguably his death that allows the coming of Darth Vader. Thinking of how the story would have changed with his survival is an interesting exercise. In the original trilogy, I’m going to say it was Han being frozen. Although the Vader reveal is obviously what we all remember it’s the moment that Han slams to the ground that we understand that bad things can and do happen. In the same vein is Luke losing his hand.
What’s the most important planet in the Star Wars universe, past or present?
Tatooine, without a doubt. For a bleak planet that nobody wants to be on, it is pivotal to a huge number of important storylines. It’s also surprisingly one of the most beautiful worlds in our game.