I don’t envy BioWare for taking on the SWTOR project. I mean I’m thrilled, but one thing we’ve learned over the years is that us Star Wars fans are exceptionally, well, fanatical about our beloved IP. Though the announcement by BioWare last week has been generally well received by the fans, criticism of the games ‘cartoon like’ and ‘over the top’ graphics seems to be dominating the official community forums. Things are getting pretty heated with the fanboys complaining about everything from lightsaber sizes to superhero skin type costumes, and the general gamers wondering what all the fuss is about.
Here is a quote from one gamer on the website in response to the overwhelming criticism..
“I’ve never seen so many people whine about graphics. When did video games become all about graphics? I would much rather have something that’s cartoony than nothing.”
So what *is* all the fuss about, why don’t the general gamers get it, and is it really that important how the graphics look?
Speaking as a hard core Fan Boy myself, and a long term player of SOE’s SWG, I have to say I totally understand why this criticism has surfaced. You see what the average Joe doesn’t understand about us Fan Boys, is that Star Wars is much much more than just a set of films. It’s a passion, a way of life, and something we take VERY seriously. A lot of us have grown up with Star Wars spending years pouring over the masses of Star Wars content out there, hungry to learn all we can about this wonderful fictional galaxy. We immerse ourselves in that galaxy and we want that immersion to be as realistic an experience to the Star Wars IP as it possibly can. The size of the lightsaber IS important to us because when we log in and play our characters, we want to put ourselves in their shoes, feel like the character, and not feel like we’re simply playing a video game. A lightsaber the size of a log breaks the immersion and it’s hard to feel as though you’re in the gritty Star Wars galaxy when everyone is running around in multi coloured spandex.
In a recent interview with SWTOR’s Art Director, Jeff Dobson’s is quoted as saying “We definitely think that Star Wars is all about that "lived in" and "gritty" feeling that you get with the original trilogy. It's a dirty sci-fi; it's not a polished and clean sci-fi. It definitely draws people into the world.”
[Full Article Here]
I have to say, those screenshots certainly don’t look dirty, gritty or lived in to me! To be fair though, these are the first screenshots to be published and it’s perhaps a little too early to be so critical.
When asked about the over sized lightsabers, Dobson’s had this to say..
“We're actually still tweaking that. That said, we do want the weapons to feel just a little bit oversized. We're always trying to think about that "show off" factor. We definitely don't want to make them too small and miss out on that show-off factor.
For those that are concerned about the screenshots, I think the lightsabers look bigger in those pictures than they actually are. But without a doubt we want to have that "oversized" weapon feel in the game for the guns and the lightsabers both. By making the weapons a little bit oversized, it makes you feel cool to have that giant gun in your hands.”
[Full Article Here]
I have to confess, this comment made my heart sink a little, confirming that they were indeed going for an ‘over the top’ feel for SWTOR. The good news however is that in response to the overwhelming feedback from the community that was getting a little out of hand, BioWare’s Rob Chestney, Senior Writer responded by posting this on their forums:
"BioWare is strongly committed to its community and we look at all the issues brought up consistently in the forums, including the size of the lightsabers. At this point, the screenshots are a really limited representation of both the characters and the weapons in the game, so if you keep checking back you'll get a better idea of what the game looks like.
Again, we are reading these forums, and your concerns will be discussed, but I should point out that the blog this thread refers to twisted Jeff Dobson's words a bit. Jeff did say lightsabers would be customizable and that higher level weapons should look cooler than lower level weapons, but nowhere did he suggest that the paradigm for how to make lightsabers look cooler was as simple as making them larger.
The spirit of the Star Wars movies is important to us, and we're not going to just ignore that. Arguably, one of the coolest lightsabers in the movies was Count Dooku's with the curved hilt. I'm not sure if it was smaller than average, but it certainly wasn't larger. We want higher level lightsabers to look better aesthetically. We'll make an effort to show you what we're talking about as soon as we can."
[Link to forum post]
This at least demonstrates they’re listening to the community and hopefully willing to make changes if there’s an overwhelming demand. Knowing us Fanboys though, there’s going to be many more ‘overwhelming demands’ along the way, as well as lots of blood, sweat and tears. What have BioWare let themselves in for?
So to conclude I have to say I’m glad the community will play a part in shaping this game before its release. I know it’s hard for general gamers to comprehend just why we fanboys get all hot under the collar about what seem minor things to them, but at the end of the day, if the Fanboys get their way, we’ll be happy, and they'll still get the opportunity to play an excellent game! We want an MMO that’s Star Wars, not Clone Wars.
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