Star Wars: The Old Republic lore galore

The Star Wars MMORPG will feature a lore database similar to those in Mass Effect and Dragon Age, for terrible people to pore over.

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Lore--love it or hate it, you've got to loathe the way writing in video games is damaged by an obsession with trifling and insignificant details. Still, some people love poring over it, a group which happens to overlap quite heavily with Star Wars fans. In light of this, the unveiling of an in-game lore encyclopaedia for Star Wars: The Old Republic is perhaps no great surprise.

The Codex feature is inspired by similar databases in developer BioWare's Dragon Age and Mass Effect series. Entries about worlds, creatures, races, artefacts, and other boring details will unlock as you play the MMORPG. Some will be "free," given to players to explain where they are and what they're doing. Others, however, will be unlocked by killing rare monsters, exploring, completing quests, and the like.

In the unveiling blog post, BioWare explained the need for the Codex:

There are clearly many games that have deep, engaging back stories that designers and writers have worked tirelessly to develop, but in the game, the player only sees what their character sees. Often times, the rich back story is used only for the context of quests, and players never really get the bird's eye view of the narrative. The 'big picture' can become even more confusing and incomplete if the player misses a quest or discovers key plot points out of order. A lot of times, what ends up happening, is that the player just gives up on understanding the overarching storyline, and just focuses on enjoying other parts of the gameplay experience.

    Obviously, this was a matter of some concern to us. Star Wars is one of the richest, most engaging fictional settings in all of pop culture. We have an exceptional team of writers working hard to build and expand the Star Wars universe in the Old Republic era. As you may have heard, story is kind of a big deal to BioWare and to The Old Republic, and that story is a lot better if you understand the context for what's going on around you and how your actions fit in.

BioWare estimates that The Old Republic's Codex currently contains over 120,000 words--more than the average Star Wars novel. Don't worry, though, you probably shan't be forced to read a single word.

There'll also be "a sub-set of the codex entries" which grant permanent bonuses to player stats. These "datacrons" will be contained in little boxes scattered around the galaxy in hard-to-reach places. "While some are hidden, many are in plain sight--the trick is often in figuring out how to get to that datacron that you see on a ledge off in the distance," BioWare explained.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is due to be released for PC later this year, having been delayed. It was previously slated to launch this spring.

Publisher EA expects The Old Republic to take subscribers away from small MMOs, rather than tackling World of Warcraft head-on. It'd be "substantially profitable" with 500,000 subscribers, EA has said.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 9, 2011 9:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Star Wars: The Old Republic lore galore.

    The Star Wars MMORPG will feature a lore database similar to those in Mass Effect and Dragon Age, for terrible people to pore over.

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      May 9, 2011 9:09 AM

      oh no the layout is just like WoW !!!! Everyone go ahead and make your lame judgements now.... I always forget that a UI is the basis for all MMO's now :)

      I myself think this game is going to do very well !!!

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        May 9, 2011 9:55 AM

        Here's a judgement, they let a large group of writers, reviewers, etc., play the game for two days. They hated it. Standard MMO similarities aside, that is a baaad omen.

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          May 9, 2011 10:06 AM

          That's not really true. SOME hated it. Not everyone did. I read two previews: one was overwhelmingly negative, one was fairly positive.

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            May 10, 2011 1:03 AM

            Yeah, but a negative preview is pretty rare, usually it seems like people gush over everything, even if their eventual review is negative.

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          May 9, 2011 10:16 AM

          [deleted]

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            May 9, 2011 10:33 AM

            I've only seen good reviews.

            TOR will get the 500k easy, since everyone know what Star Wars is. You can go up to someone on the street and ask them to tell you something about Guild Wars, WOW, Rift, you probably wont get much. If you go to someone and say Star Wars you would hear a lot more. Just like WOW sucked in MMO Gamers, TOR will do to Casual MMO Gamer who already know the lore without having to read a book. Me personally the whole Sword/Board MMO stuff is getting as old and Nazi's in FPS games. I need lasers, and spaceships.

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              May 10, 2011 1:04 AM

              WOW didn't suck in MMO gamers, it pretty much created a large number of them.

              I'd say at least half of the people I've met in real life where WOW has come up have not otherwise been gamers, or previously only played very casual stuff.

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          May 9, 2011 10:40 AM

          John Walker over at RPS liked it, which is more than enough for me.

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        May 9, 2011 10:09 PM

        They wish they could get to WoW's level - everything looks so clunky here

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      May 9, 2011 9:10 AM

      after DNF's release next month, I will be salivating for months until this is released.

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      May 9, 2011 9:10 AM

      Neat!

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      May 9, 2011 9:17 AM

      I'm not terrible, so I won't be able to pore over it. I was considering pawing it, though - I am all up for pawing.

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        May 9, 2011 9:36 AM

        I was going to piss all over it, but then I might have to clean off my keyboard and monitor.

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      May 9, 2011 9:56 AM

      It's actually more correct to say that only terrible people will pick this game up in the first place!

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      May 9, 2011 10:04 AM

      I take it Bioware/Lucasarts must not advertise on shacknews

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      May 9, 2011 11:02 AM

      Why the Lore hate? Lore is awesome

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      May 9, 2011 11:08 AM

      I dont know its got a codex..almost like dragon age. They should try to make console versions too..think that would be more successful.

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      May 9, 2011 11:39 AM

      I LOVE EVERYTHING STAR WARS AND I CAN'T WAIT TO GIVE THEM MY MONEY.

      There is not an ounce of sarcasm in this statement. Even if the game is mediocre I'm looking forward to it because I love this universe and I never tire of it.

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        May 9, 2011 11:44 AM

        im with this fanboy

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        May 9, 2011 1:22 PM

        I walked up to a BioWare employee at PAX Prime 2009 and offered them my wallet. I told them "When TOR comes out, this is all yours anyway, so lets just shortcut the process."

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      May 9, 2011 12:33 PM

      This will eventually be a game, right? I'm interested.

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      May 9, 2011 1:29 PM

      Is this another thread where I point out the failure of this game is going to change EA internally as a company? Yeah it is.

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        May 9, 2011 1:40 PM

        [deleted]

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          May 9, 2011 2:14 PM

          The only thing the game has going for it is the attached Star Wars name.

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            May 9, 2011 9:20 PM

            and the whole old republic made by bioware thing

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              May 9, 2011 9:34 PM

              Except that it seems most people who have played it think it sucks. The strength of the KOTOR games (of which only one was made by Bioware) is in the inter-party banter and epic story. If they could actually make this work in an MMO, that might be cool, but it sounds like it's not happening.

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                May 10, 2011 2:20 AM

                That's exactly why I'm excited. All the negative criticism seems to be that they shoehorned an MMO into KOTOR, and that Bioware took all the steps necessary not to let the MMOness of it get at all in the way of the KOTORness. Which is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.

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      May 9, 2011 2:22 PM

      I love lore, as long as it's well written and is well meshed with the game. I don't like random codex entries popping up that have nothing to do with the current situation. That being said, I guarantee you (and several of my friends) have been anxiously waiting for this game for years.

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        May 10, 2011 12:55 AM

        yeah i dont like having to go out of my way to find out about lore like DAs codex entries

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        May 10, 2011 2:15 AM

        In games, I can't get too into "extra" lore when the main character is a faceless Johnny B. Anybody. Probably because the lore has no effect on my game or the way I view my avatar.

        The only lore I'd care about here are the stories of singular characters I already care about from previous games like Revan or the Exile.

        And I kinda hope they don't reveal anything bout those guys cos it would pretty much kill my stubborn hope for KoTOR3 stone cold

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      May 9, 2011 9:30 PM

      [deleted]

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        May 9, 2011 10:48 PM

        I was never able to envision how Star Wars game mechanics could be made to work in the classic MMO framework but that's what we have here and all the in game footage I've seen of TOR paints a very weak, dated picture. I don't like most single player games but I would have bought KOTOR3 and I feel as if EA and Bioware should be punished for ditching the KOTOR franchise in favor of this lame MMO money grab. As others have said, just think what kind of game KOTOR3 could have been if only a fraction of TOR's resources had been allocated to it.

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