SWTOR Writing - An Exclusive Q&A with Daniel Erickson
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Posted October 22nd, 2008 by Cody Bye
Questions by Cody "Micajah" Bye and Media Group C

Answers by Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer for BioWare Austin

If there's one part of a game that BioWare takes seriously, it's their stories. Anyone that's played Baldur's Gate I and II, KOTOR I and II, Jade Empire, Sonic Chronicles and Mass Effect know that when you jump into a BioWare game, the story will captivate you from start to finish. Now that BioWare has jumped into the MMO space with Star Wars: The Old Republic, one of their initial statements at the official announcement was that they were making the "first story-based MMO." To get some further explanation on this concept, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody "Micajah" Bye asked a number of questions to BioWare Austin's lead writer, Daniel Erickson, who captivated the audience with his thoughts on the SW: TOR story. While you may feel like in-game storires aren't your thing, we still suggest that you read this interview, as you may soon find that BioWare is more than willing to try and convert you. Once you're done here, jump over to our exclusive Design Q&A! Check 'em out!

The planet Tython was the first home of the Jedi Order.

How are you bringing story to the elder game in SW: TOR? Progressing a character through story is one thing, but how are you implementing it when a player reaches the level cap?

Daniel Erickson: I completely understand the desire to know how we're going to do story in that part of the game, but we can't talk about elder game content at all.

Are these Sith that you briefly discussed the separate Sith species?

Daniel: Let's do a little nerding here. Many, many, many years ago, the planet Tython was home to the very first Force users that would eventually become the Jedi Order. There was also a group of people that said, "Man, you guys are really uptight!" These two groups had a great conflict, the good guys chased the bad guys off the planet, and the bad guys fled into space - which happens a lot to the poor Sith - and these Dark Jedi eventually found the Sith race.

They were a red-skinned group of people that were very highly Force sensitive. They interbred with them and then the term "Sith" eventually began to mean the entire culture as the group of people that were actually a part of the Sith race were actually much smaller than the group of people who then colonized them.

So what's this about Typhon? What occurs on this planet?

Daniel: Tython is actually where the Jedi will train and start out in the game. The Jedi Order actually opposed the signing of the treaty with the Sith Empire, because they thought that it was an obvious trap and something awful was going to happen.

After the events occurred with the treaty, the Jedi pulled back to Tython so they could do their own thing.

Korriban is making another appearance in SWTOR.

Are you looking at putting some of the expanded universe characters into the game that weren't really mentioned in KOTOR I and II? Individuals like Exar Qun, Nomi Sunrider, and Ulic Qel-Droma?

Daniel: Absolutely! It's really one of the areas that's important to us. Outside of the guy at Lucasfilm that keeps track of the Holocron - the repository of knowledge that is "true" in Star Wars - we probably have the largest group of experts on the Star Wars history. We never want you to have  quest where you listen to a librarian for two hours, but we know that it's very important to the people that are familiar with the IP. Even the things that contradict other things in the expanded universe, we've tried to iron out.

One of the things you may have noticed in KOTOR is that all of the tombs are actually from canon. You have the tomb of Marko Ragnos, for example. We know that people are going to get in and touch our games a lot. Those are the people that are probably wondering what Revan and the Exile have been up to. We know that they went out into deep space to fight an ancient evil, But what happened?

What happened to the different adventurers? What happened to Bastilla? This isn't stuff that we ever want to shove in somebody's face, because there will be some guy out there who has only seen - in his twelve year old life - is Episode I. Or maybe it'll be the guy who hasn't even seen Star Wars!

That's why it's important that we have our players "train" to be a Jedi and learn what it means to actually "be" a Jedi. The only Jedi you may know is Luke, who is the only Jedi in the galaxy and doing it poorly! Yoda spent so much time telling him what to do, and Luke kept saying "Nope! I'm going to do this anyway!"

We talk about choice a lot, and this is another element that I think is important. It's really hard to wrap your mind around the fact that you're playing a BioWare game in an MMO space. Let's say your 60 hours in to playing the "Sith RPG" (Editor's Note: the Sith class experience in Star Wars: The Old Republic). You've been trying to play the Light Side of the Sith Empire. Again Light Side is a very different thing in our game. People often say "Oh - I'd just switch factions.!" No you wouldn't. If you read your Star Wars history, the Jedi were trying to eradicate the Sith from the galaxy! You were born into a world where a group of people is trying to destroy your entire Empire. Being a good man does not mean jumping ship and trying to kill your own people.

Every character class in SWTOR will have its own individual story.

Being a good man means trying to change the world from the inside. You're trying to make the Empire a better place. One of the things we had to do is try to humanize the Sith Empire. We have to make sure that people understood that every evil regime that's ever existed in history has good people in it. The majority of people were just trying to "do their thing."

We always laugh at some of the old Star Wars products where you'd play the Dark Side and someone says "Dark greetings!" to you. Yay evil!

You couldn't play a game and have a community and have friends if that's how you saw yourself. People don't want to be a cartoon.

So you're 60 hours in, you're playing Light Side. You suddenly come upon a huge choice. Not only are you playing a BioWare game, where all of your choices matter, but you also realize that you don't have a save button. Whatever choice you make is going to be your choice. Forever. I'm never going to know what would've happened if I went down that other route.

This is not just a person going through a story; there is actual power behind making these choices. They are stronger than they have ever been in ANY BioWare game.

How do you transition this story based gameplay into a game where thousands of people play together?

Daniel: One of the things we really had to look at is how people play the game. If you look at studies, you'll find that even though a person says they're playing a game a particular way, about 40% of people in MMOs play by themselves. There's another huge chunk of people that always play in a group, and they always play in the same group. And then you get the final group of people that really fall into all the areas in-between.

We want to support all of that. A great example of this is to look at the movies. Luke's got a story going on. Han's got a story going on. Leia's got a story going on - mainly that her planet blew up.... *laughs* Most of her quest content is gone at this point. Then they're all getting together and participating in the big story. That's why we've got the big conflict in the game and how war is on its way between the Sith and the Republic. That's everybody's story.

When you guys get together, you're interacting with the larger over story, but even within that story, the things you get to see are largely dependent on who youre traveling with. If Han had never hooked up with Luke, he would've never had a perspective on the Force. He would've never said "May the Force be with you." to anyone. He would've never thought about Jedi, he would've never thought about any of that.

He would've been a man that lived in a world of smuggling and evil Hutts and crime and trying to make a buck.

Is there going to be any outlet for players that are less interested in the grand drama between the Empire and the Republic? Maybe some of the criminal aspects of the Star Wars universe?

There will be other ways to play through SWTOR than simply as a Jedi or a Sith.

Daniel: Absolutely. One of the things that we talk about is the fact that there are a lot of "fantasies" about Star Wars, and they're certainly not all focused on Jedi and Sith. There's absolutely going to be classes that are based around the other archetypal fantasies that you'll have and many of those take you into very different places.

Also, there are people out there who adore Baldur's Gate II, but aren't into story at all. They play by hitting "1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1" because they are tactical D&D guys. Bioware has always had great progressions systems, and we hope that we can convert some of those guys. During our play tests, we've actually had guys come in who are openly hostile to stories in MMOs, and they come out and give us perfect scores. They didn't even expect that that was possible in an MMO.

It's really about story not getting in the way. Some of you have heard the horrors of the Bioware training program and the hiring that we go through. Yes - there is over three months past the initial testing where you don't even get to touch the game. You're just training to be a Bioware writer.

If you're writing a class, which is the most sacred of responsibilities, it's incredibly important to get that right. If you're writing a Sith, I may have to write up on our white board: And then Darth Vader helped a farmer save his tractor. The rest of the writers will then mock you. Then it doesn't go in our game.

In SW: TOR, you will never go into a cantina and poke a random person to see if you can solve their problems for a few credits. You will never have some stranger on the street ask you to save their cat.

This is something that we really started to push with Dragon Age. We have to keep pushing forward. The level of writing and quest building that was acceptable in Knights of the Old Republic would not be accepted in SW: TOR. Mass Effect came out and absolutely set a new bar for this. We're coming out and saying that we can push that even further.

I always tell my writers, imagine the first response you can ever choose in any quest you write is, "Excuse me, I'm saving the world. Is this important?" And then, does it fit? The Jedi guy may be convinced to go save the cat. But Vader? That's why I said there was no faction cross over. I've never found a single example where it worked. I've never found a story where Ben Kenobi would do something that Vader would be down with.

The character stories in SWTOR will be appropriate, heroic, and epic.

Does ths mean you won't be asking Jedi to go out and kill nine rats or nerfs?

Daniel: Here's a great example. In the videos and in the concept art, one of the first things you saw was a K'lor Slug. It was very important to me to not create when we can take. Lucas has such a huge backlog of great, exciting stuff, so when of the first things I asked for was the art team to make the Dejarik set. The point to that is this: the K'lor Slug is twenty feet tall, horrible and can eat your whole face. That's what you fight as level 1 as a Sith.

The first thing you ever fight in the game is that thing. You never do anything less heroic than that. There are no bunnies. There are no rats. There are no snakes. At no point will your Sith be sitting down with thread and needles wondering how he's going to make a pair of shoes.

There ar a huge number of incredibly non-heroic things that are traditionally in MMOs simply because there was no contextualization to deny them.

When you're playing an evil character, often you end up doing quasi-good things. How do you make characters into the ultimate bad asses in the galaxy? How do we do anti-heroic things?

Daniel: Let's talk about Vader. In the context of Vader's Emperor and Empire, does he do heroic things?

Hell yes he does.

Daniel: He takes down the largest threat to the entire galaxy, in his perspective. He tries to turn them over to his side. It all about contextualization. Now if you were Vader and a random Imperial ran up to you and said, "There's a fire on the aft deck! Come help us Vader!" He'd probably get killed. Right?

On of the things that's very important is for the contextualization to make sense. You do big, epic things that feel heroic because the odds are going against you. The first thing Vader does when he finds out they're trying to blow up the Death Star is grab two guys and puts his own ass on the line and jump in a ship and go out and kill that little kid.

He goes after 'em personally and goes out and dominates. You can go out and experience heroic, epic things that are not in anyway good or nice.

Finally, you haven't talked about Mandalorians yet. Are they in the game and are we going to see Mandalore again?

Daniel: We can't talk about this yet, but I can say that I love Mandalorians. I'll leave it at that.

What kind of level cap do you have in mind?

James Ohlen: We are going to have a level based system, and we are going to have a level cap, When we know what that is we'll share it with you.

Gordon Walton: There are a lot of thing that we aren't going to be able to share with you simply because they're still in development. BioWare games go through a lot of iteration before we ever settle on something.

We'd rather give you real information than blow smoke up your....whatever. When we share something with the community, we've played through that part of the game enough that we're confident that it's going to be in the final game.

We're really, really committed to no overhyping the game.

Rich Vogel: It's BioWare and it's Star Wars. Overhyping the game could be very easily done. We want to make sure we meet the expectations of the game,

Is there any space-based aspect to the game?

James: We can say that we're going to have different worlds for you to explore and that you're going to have a method of travel from world to world. But again, we can't go into any details on how you go from world-to-world. I know it's a little disappointing, but it's something we definitely can't talk about at this point.

You stated that you're brining "Star Wars combat" to the MMO space. Does that mean you're bringing combat from other games, like Jade Empire or Mass Effect, to the genre?

James: Basically, when we call it Star Wars combat, what we want to bring to the MMO space is combat that feels like it's coming from the Star Wars movies. Typically, MMO combat is very slow and is really caveman combat where you run up to a creature and hit the creature over the head with your weapon.

As you saw from the gameplay movie, we're leaning more towards combat that looks much more visceral and that it could've come from the movie. You've having lightsaber duels and blaster-like combat that is fast-paced and also heroic.

One thing that we don't want to have happen in our game is the situation where you get a bunch of players together to beat up one guy. That's just not very heroic and it's something that we don't want to have happen in our game. We're looking for much more heroic battles where you're the group that's outnumbered. If you think about the movies, the heroes are the ones that are heroic because they're fighting against the odds.

With thousands of years to choose from in the Star Wars universe, what made you guys decide to go back to the Old Republic era rather than picking something new?

James: We're actually basing this game 300 years after the events of the Knights of the Old Republic. 300 years is a long time. For example, think back to 1708 in our time; the Napoleonic Wars hadn't even happened yet! That's how much time has passed.

SWTOR takes place 300 years after the events of KOTOR II.

That way we have a lot of freedom, but we're also able to pull things that people enjoyed from the Knights of the Old Republic. We might be able to do some cameos with those characters that can live for more than 300 years. We can also take the themes from KOTOR I and II and explore them more in our game.

There are quite a few questions at the end of the Knights of the Old Republic II that we can answer in SW: TOR.

Are you prepared for a world where there going to be hundreds of people clamoring to be Jedi and Sith? Will you be encouraging players to take a look at other classes besides those two?

Yes and yes. Within our own company, we've been doing surveys on what classes people would want to play, and it generally gives us a good idea of what the populations are going to look like on a particular origin world, especially if a class is going to be more popular. That allows us to make certain decisions.

We also definitely want to encourage players to try other classes. We have a system in place to do that, but - again - we can't talk about it yet because it hasn't been finalized. It's pretty exciting.

One of the things that may be different about our game than other MMOs is the amount of replayability in the game. When you play a Jedi from level 1 to whatever our cap is going to be, and then you start a new character that's a Sith and go all the way through that character's story, you won't actually see any content that's the same. It's a completely different experience. It's almost like playing a completely different game.

There's going to be a big appeal to go and try those other classes. Plus, because you're adventuring with your buddies, people are going to tell you some of the exciting stuff that's going on with their classes. You may get bits that are spoilers, but there's honestly so much story with each class that you probably won't remember.

Gordon: One thing that we should cover about this, and it's one of the challenges, is this idea that all the other classes are wimps and that the Jedi rule. But if you actually think about it, the Jedi are getting popped by people that aren't Jedi all the time. That and not everyone's fantasy is going to be to play a Jedi.

The Jedi are not all-powerful beings in SWTOR.

James: Every class in our game is heroic. If you look at the universe, heroic characters are able to really give the Jedi a challenge every time. Jango Fett and Boba Fett are two great example. Jango Fett is able to take out a Jedi in the Attack of the Clones movie - he may get killed by the highest level Jedi in Mace Windu - and Boba Fett essentially incapicitates Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi who is then rescued by Han Solo. 

There are definitely different people that can take out the Jedi. And also the clone troopers in Episode III. The may have had the upper hand, but imagine if there was an Elite Clone Trooper! If you're the best of the best, you can probably kill a Jedi.

Rich: We certainly don't imagine that Jedi can one shot everything.

You mentioned earlier that you don't want players to need to go out and recruit a bunch of other players to take down one monster. How do you balance an MMO so that you're still able to be a bad ass in single player but also have that sort of multiplayer experience that so many MMOs provide?

James: One of the things we've been doing is that we're making sure that when we're building content we have different representatives of the different play styles. Whenever we're doing design discussions or implementing a system, we have the different player types involved. There's the solo player type that hates other players and is very anti-social...

BioWare is creating their game with all play styles in mind.

It's funny, because there are a bunch of players like this in WoW where they don't like to hang around with other players but love to show off all the cool stuff that they have.

Then there are the players that like to adventure with their buddies. They have their own group of friends, and they just like to adventure with those players all the time.

Then there are players that like to join guilds and are social butterflies and like to adventure with people from their guild. They like to be part of these big huge groups that go out and play in major events like raids.

We want to take all those players and make sure that each of those player types has fun in our game. I can't go into details about all the systems, but we have made sure that those player types are thought about when we're building the game.

Can you talk about the leveling system at all? Will there be innovations beyond killing monsters all the time?

James: Our leveling system does use the classic experience point type leveling system. There are some innovations that we working on, but we can't talk about it.

I can talk about companion characters, and they're going to be a big part of that system. They are going to be leveling up and geting different equipment with you.

The Dark Side and the Light Side are also going to be a big part of the game. You're going to be making decisions in your stories that are going to be bringing you towards the Light Side or the Dark Side. You can also try to go down a more "gray" path, much like Qui-Gon Jinn. All of those paths are acceptable paths in which you work to travel down. I don't think we've really seen that sort of system in an MMO before.

Design Q&A

Will PvP be in the game? How are you handling that system?

James: There will be PvP in the game There's a reason why we decided to build two factions into the game,

The game is called Star *Wars*. We're always thinking about that. It's always about war. It's always about conflict. When the writers are penning the story, we always try to remind them that this is Star Wars. It's about the wars, and the conflict.

Think about the movies, that's what is exciting about them. Any sort of PvP mechanic we have we want to make feel like Star Wars. There are definitely certain things that that means....that I really can't talk about. *laughs*

You've talked about the companion characters quite a bit. Do they disappear when you're playing with other people? How do you prevent ending up playing with a small mob if you're playing with three friends?

James: You only ever have a single companion character at a given time. You may have collected more than one companion character but you can only have one with you. You can switch them out because the companion characters have different strength, weaknesses and personalities.

For example, you may have a whole bunch of companion characters, but only one companion character likes big guns. You may want to use him all the time. Or you may have a different companion character that you play with simply because you like their story and personality. Maybe you're pursuing a romance with your companion character. Or perhaps a different companion character has really compelling quests that you want to participate in.

You can only have one with you at any given time, but we have been balancing for when you group with your friends.

Companion characters are going to be a big part of your MMO experience.

Rich: And we really want to make sure these companions aren't just pets. They should be a part of your experience. Even if you're playing alone, you'll always have that companion to go with you and be with you.

Gordon: They add to the immersion of the game as well.

How much control will you have over your compaions? Will you be able to trigger their special abilities?

James: That's actually something that players have varying expectations about. Some players are going to want a lot of control and some players hate pets. They don't want to play a Hunter type class, so they're going to want to have less control. We've made sure to accomodate those different play styles.

We don't want to force players to always keep control of their companions.

How are you handling Force potential? That was always a big part of the universe, are you implementing any of that sort of thing into the game?

James: For the most part, it's going to be based on the class, level, and the choices you make in the game. There aren't going to be players with more Force potential than other players, simply because you get into a bad situation when you go down that path. The "I'm cooler than you" scenario.

You can certainly earn those sort of bragging rights if you're a higher level and played through the game, but we don't want it to be based on something that players have no control over.

Are there any plans for a mentoring / sidekick system?

James: Yes, we have a plan for that sort of system. There are certainly different ways to implement that, and, although we can't say which system it's going to be, we are investigating that.

Gordon: We always want to make sure people can play with their friends as soon as possible rather than capping them so they can't. That's part of the social experience, no matter what level a player is.

How are you incorporating vehicles into gameplay? Will there be ground combat and space combat?

James: We can't talk about it, but Star Wars definitely had a lot of vehicles and we're certainly looking at it.

Are you going to be including anything in the game that isn't combat oriented? Maybe some classes like a smuggler, admiral or diplomat?

James: The core classes are definitely going to be oriented around heroic combat encounters. We are going to have crafting, which we think is a major part of MMOs. We're really hoping to implement that into the game in a way that feels right for Star Wars. For the longest time we were really struggling with crafting because it doesn't really feel right in Star Wars, but one of the designers came up with a great idea of how to incorporate crafting into the game without making the hero feel like he's doing something non-heroic.

Will lightsabers change as we advance?

James: That's one thing with MMOs; player's and their equipment change as they progress through the game, so you definitely aren't going to end the game with the same lightsaber you started off with.

That may mean you upgraded your lightsaber or you switched to a better one,

Rich: As you progress, you will definitely be able to tell a high end character from a relative newbie.

Are you doing anything with player changable environments? Things like capturable towns and stuff like that?

James: We are looking at it, but we can't say anything yet. Warhammer has been doing some fantastic work in that regard, and they're part of EA and we can talk about all their experiences and what they've done with their game.

What kind of web elements are you preparing for the game? Things like an Armory sort of system or even what WoW is doing with achievements?

The web will be a major part of the SWTOR experience.

Gordon: We really look at that as part of the service of the game. There's no difference to me between the service in the game and the service on the web. You are our customers and we're delivering you entertainment.

Will there be instancing in the game?

James: Yes. There will be instances in the game, and it's improtant for a lot of reasons. We want to be able to do storytelling and have players experiences that aren't disrupted like they are in public areas.

Rich: But we are balancing the instanced areas with the public parts.

James: Because it's an MMO and players play MMOs because they want to feel part of a vast world with lots of other players, you can't make too heavy use of instancing, or you'll take that feeling away. That's something we're very aware of.

Rich: I actually met my first online friend when they saved me from dying. That's an experience you don't get in instances.

How will the dialogue in SW: TOR be delivered? Will it be textually? A lot of BioWare games use great voice-acting and cinematic cameria angles and that sort of thing.

James: We really can't talk about that at this time. We have a lot of learning that we can take from other BioWare games, and we're going to take storytelling to the next level.

Finally, battles in Star Wars always seem to feature hundreds of characters on screen. You see all the clone troopers running around and the storm troopers being blasted by Rebel troopers. Are you have combat where maybe your Jedi is surrounded by hundreds of enemies?

James: We definitely want players to feel outnumbered. *coughs* Maybe not a hundred to one, but we do want players to feel outnumbered and we can do that in public areas and especially in instanced areas.