There are few events in the world that are as perfect for Star Wars
fans as the San Diego Comic-Con, and that fact was readily apparent by
the vast number of Jedi, stormtroopers, and Sith walking the show floor
on a daily basis. The folks at Lucasarts and BioWare did not miss this
fact during their summer convention planning, and Star Wars: The Old
Republic had a strong presence at the show. With the latest cinematic
trailer running full bore above their heads, Ten Ton Hammer's Cody Bye
had a pleasant chat with developers Jake Neri, Hall Hood, Dallas
Dickinson, Alexander Freed, and Jeff Dobson about multiple aspects of
SW:TOR, including fan expectations, combat content, and exploring the
expanded universe.

Ten
Ton Hammer: I was talking with a gamer that hadn't actually heard of
Star Wars: The Old Republic, and when I mentioned that the game was
going to be fully voiced and would focus heavily on story, he thought
it would never work simply because gamers - especially in MMOs -
constantly skip past story to get to the action. How do you fight that
sort of cynicism?

Dallas: There's something different with the story you get in
BioWare RPGs. There's voice over on all the NPCs and all the
characters. It creates an immersion that simply isn't there in other
games. That's one of the things we learned with Mass Effect - and I
think was one of the reasons why the game was so popular when it was
released.

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