"That" TOR document, dissected

Back in January, there was a document circulating the Net relating to BioWare’s The Old Republic. Said document was allegedly from an insider, commenting on the game and how it would play out for gamers when they finally got their hands on it. Now, most of the document was stuff that you or I could have made up after a long boozy lunch at the pub because it’s straightforward and, like any good rumour or conspiracy theory, totally and utterly believable. This is compounded when the document seemingly corroborates what the devs have been saying to date… or have the devs been corroborating the document?

Anyway, the document’s resurfaced of late, so I thought it might be fun to revisit some parts of that document, with some comments from myself, based on my time following the game (ie: a long time; going back way further than the creation of the “official” TOR website). Ready? Let’s go. The rumour from the document are italicised.

TOR was born from a business model. This business model was handed over to developers who were then asked to design a game around it. What was this business model you ask, it was a book. This book was written by Lucas Arts and inspired by KOTOR and its success. I dont know the origins of when and why it was done but this book is the framework for TOR. The game has been designed to play like a virtual book. Each chapter will have alternate endings based on which dialog you chose in the quests. The goal is to make the game replayable and new each time you start over. Each chapter has roughly the same content as a KOTOR game. And there are several chapters so the game does have a ton of content.

Book? What book? It’s certainly not an existing book that you can go and buy from your local bookstore, obviously. But, it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that an author, or BioWare staffer, has been contracted to write such a thing in the background. Certainly, when you hear the BioWare people talk with passion about bringing “story” to MMOs (yes, yes, I agree it’s been a stupid thing to say, given that most MMOs have decent to excellent storylines already; witness LotRO), doing it via a book, with chapters that help create moments of choice, is entirely plausible. On a scale of 1-10, I’d give this rumour about a 7 or 8. Expect the game to be something like that.

The game is heavily instanced. If you have ever played Lord of the Rings Online, its similiar to the beginning quest sequence and some of the books. You will literally watch a story unfold in front of you in your own little world. There are several cinematic scenes in the game. Its definitely NOT open. There are no giant worlds you can freely explore. Its sort of like Guild Wars or a variation of Age of Conan. No player cities and no housing.

For the longest time, I’d always imagined TOR being like that, primarily because of its focus on “the story”, rather than being a life simulator, a la Star Wars Galaxies. I tend to think that we will see housing, in some form, however. So, all things considered, I’d give this rumour about 6 or 7. Expect instances at the very least to help tell “your” story, so that you aren’t trying to have a unique experience with 40 other people all trying to kill the same boss and totally disrupting the immersion that the story will try and evoke for you.

There is no space content so if your hoping for a JTL in TOR you better look elsewhere. There is a few quests involving boarding a ship but you arent going to fly around in an X-Wing doing missions.

Bzzzzzzt, nope. There’s enough talk about the game now that confirms there’s an element of space content in the game. So this rumours a turkey. 0/10.

The story evolves. Think Books in Lord of the Rings. They plan on adding new chapters to the story. Here is the catch, you will likely have to pay for each new chapter. Its not really an expansion, so its more like buying some additional quests.

This seems like more of a guess, to my mind. Especially if there’s already a monthly fee, I doubt there will be paid-for chapters available. Otherwise, what is the monthly fee for? The game will either be a monthly fee, with free updates (like LotRO), or it will be free-to-play with paid for updated (like Guild Wars). I know those two examples aren’t 100% perfect, but you get what I mean. So I’m only going to give this rumour a 5/10.

There are classes in the game but not in the traditional MMO sense. There isnt a tank class or a healing class really. Each class can dps and has some healing abilities. Each class will start on its own planet and will have a unique series of quests to start the game. Once you leave the planet, the quests will be mostly the same as other classes but the dialog is unique to each class. Of course there are different possibilities based on the dialog you choose. Also cinematic sequences will be different depending on class.

I sense a lot of guesswork here… but it’s guesswork that has been confirmed, piece by piece, so it’s really an 8 for the rumour. But anyone could have really guessed this stuff, especially if they had previously played a KOTOR game.

You can solo through the entire game. Not to say there arent group quests, there are but you can skip them. If you dont like questing, this game isnt for you. There really is no other means to play the game.

Yep, the devs have been sayin this from day one. So, 10/10 for the rumour, but it was already out there in the public domain from the start, so it’s no indication of talent on the poster’s behalf.

There is no non-combat class. Crafting is very basic. You craft your own lightsaber. There is no weapons crafting or armor crafting of any kind. There are some quests that require you to do some basic crafting like fixing a shield generator or fixing a droid. There are some modifications you can add to your gear. But you arent going to make your own gear.

Similar to the last one, 10/10 for the rumour, but this has all been known from the start. The devs keep talking about “heroic crafting”, ie: there’s no one crafting class, or crafting skills for people to learn, but everyone will get to do some sort of crafting as they adventure. Jedi characters making their own lightsaber is a no-brainer. Fixing things while questing is another. Pretty simple stuff to imagine.

There is a limit to the number of companions you can have. And in a group you cant have two of the same companions out at the same time. Also you can only have one companion out at a time.

We’re starting to scrape the bottom of the bucket here. The rumour writer seems familiar with KOTOR games and is extrapolating from them. I mean, OBVIOUSLY, there’ll be a limit to how many party members you can have — whether they’re NPCs or not. So this is an 8 or 9 for the rumour coming true, but it didn’t take Einstein, let alone an “insider” to work out.

To summarize the game, its not really an MMO in the traditional sense. Some people are going to be upset by the design. Others like KOTOR fans will absolutely love this game.

I agree with the final line, but it really is a motherhood statement, more than anything.

So, my take on all this? I don’t think the document is credible in terms of being a real “inside job”. I think it’s written by someone with a touch of writing flair who is as familiar with the game as, say, myself (which isn’t really that hard to become). In other words, I think a great deal of the document is true or, at the worst, well along the lines of being correct, so people should treat it with a degree of respect. Just don’t get too suckered into the concept of it coming from a real Deep Throat in the industry!