We can do all of these things without having player stormtroopers. In fact, if you're a stormtrooper, most of these things are off-limits. A stormtrooper is shock troops and guards, and that is all they do. Heck, when one wanders away from his post guarding the Falcon in the first movie, he gets a call in under ten seconds demanding to know where he went! We don't see part-time stormtroopers anywhere in the fiction that I know of [...] letting you participate in politics, have your own player association, engage in crafting, visit the cantina, mine for rare crystals, and hunt wamp-rats--are much easier to do for you if you're reservists, covert ops, special agents, and so on. We even assumed people would get ahold of stormtrooper armor and pretend to be stormtroopers (we joked about having real ones, if they figured it out, shoot you on sight!). But BE stormtroopers? Nah--and THAT'S what I meant by saying "I just don't see any way to make stormtroopers work."
StarWars Galaxies scares me. The game is going to be so stupidly popular its just... stupid. StarWars + Massive Multiplayer = $$$. Also, the guys at TheForce.net have been digging a litle deeper on the Jedi Knight II story. They havent come up with anything concrete yet but they have ruled out Nihilistic from the developer list. Thanks o0JediBeavis0o. Oh, did I mention the official page was updated recently with another race? Well it was.
Some screenshots Verant? Aw?The team led me through the prototype, showing me several models and locations in the process. The demo was beautiful, but one thing really stood out: as Andy wandered a stretch of Tatooine desert, an AT-AT appeared on the horizon. The AT-AT lumbered toward Andy's character and as it approached, I saw that it had been built to scale - it was massive. The AT-AT came to a stop directly over Andy, whose character looked up to see the underside of the mammoth vehicle, then looked at the AT-AT's huge feet. At that moment, I felt like I was truly exploring the Star Wars universe, face-to-foot with one of the Empire's most dangerous weapons. And then, a few seconds later, the AT-AT asked Andy's character "What's up?" and I was told that the vehicle was being controlled by another team member located elsewhere in the building. Although the AT-AT's sudden ability to talk temporarily ended my sense of immersion, that feeling would overtake me again and again throughout the presentation. When the lights came up again, I realized that I hadn't touched my soda, and all I wanted to do was see everything again. I felt like I had just watched The Empire Strikes Back for the first time, all over again.
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