Good points. I wonder how many MMORPG developers actually take into account these things. I mean, they probably do (or they'd be retarded), but to what extent? Do they actually cooperate with social scientists to uncover behavior patterns, to dissect how and why players do certain things?

I have a friend who plays WoW and is in a clan with (mostly) people he knows knows irl. he tells me 80% of them are complete jackasses whose sole life purpose is to reach certain goals in WoW and then get pissed off at others when they don't want to help out or some such shit. I always ask him: why do you even PLAY with these people? Let alone get on teamspeak with them (where he, to his credit, largely ignores them).

The answer? Cause it's WoW.

Anyway....there's no stopping to Blizzard now. Unless all their offices and servers and banks get hit by a series of freak meteorites, they've become so dominant on the market and so rich that they can pretty much afford anything. Even retarded nerfs, bad patches, whatever. But they do a surprisingly good job regardless. Just saying they could not give a shit.

With the next installment knocking on the door another load of cash is waiting to pour in. Biowares mmo will be the last one for me, because i find mmos lacking in excitment emotionally and technically. In my games i want to make a difference, blow shit up and use whatever and however i want. In Mmos one cant find that, they are actually quite linear. Sure i have some choices but usually only A and B are the way to go because there is nothing at the end of C or D if you understand what i mean, the option is there but its pointless and its there for the sake of being.

Gameplay/group footage in THe Old Republic

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/07 ... more-33125

Actually looks pretty fun. Like a mix between an MMORPG and playing a (standard) offline RPG with friends.

Ox, where the hell did you dig up this topic from, theres SW TOR topic like 5 lines from the top

Anyway, Bioware needs to hire obsidian to do the story part. And they should never ever let them near any code though.

cool, looks good. Wish this wasn't still a year out.