BioWare Opens New Studio For MMORPG
From the PR announcing the studio:
Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare's Creative Director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II.Also leading the BWA team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton. Richard Vogel brings 15 years of experience to BioWare Austin, previously serving as VP of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment's Austin studio, as well as launching Ultima Online as a senior producer at Origin. Gordon Walton recently served as VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.
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Oh boy, if anyone could pull it off it could be BioWare.
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Jade Empire's combat could get really boring if you used some of the cheap exploits. However I mixed it up and tried several different styles. Hopefully when Bioware makes a Jade Empire sequal they really put some effort into the combat and AI.
I would love to have a MMO with real time combat where actual player skill comes into play. One of the reasons I don't like the current crop of MMOs is that the combat is all "I stand here, you stand there, hit each other until one of us dies." There is very little skill involved as all you need to do is hit your hot buttons in the right order and you will win. This makes me feel more like a spectator than and actual participant in the battle. I would be over joyed if a MMO came along with Ninja Gaiden like combat.
It just seems like developers are too scared to try anything radical and just keep "refining" what has come before them.
Hopefully Bioware will be able to bring something new to the table with this project.
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