2010 LucasArts Layoffs Redux

[Ztalker]

Hmm--after all these layoffs, do you think LA is just going to close its studio and outsource?

 

Let's face it, TFU2 stunk. I refuse to pay $60 for a game that only has 3 hours of gameplay and 4 levels. If this is the kind of product they're going to produce, they're going to fail miserably, and need to outsource.

 

The other option is to commit to producing top-notch games, but that costs money in terms of commitments to personnel. It looks to me like LA doesn't want to make that financial investment.

 

In other words:

Make tons of money by producing crappy stuff.

 

How weird that that strategy doesn't work.

[Darth InSidious]

Aren't rapid rounds of layoffs usually one of the mid-term warning signs that a company is circling the drain? The revolving-door policy with presidents isn't a hopeful sign, either. LA supposedly employs more than 350 people (wiki), which is smaller than BioWare (~500), or Crytek (~550). This makes the layoffs, if around 50 is in the ballpark, fairly significant. OTOH, following Jim Ward's audit, the company went down to being around 190 people. So...

[The Doctor]

As horrible as this may be, there is a silver lining, however thin: if LA ends up shutting down, we might never have to acknowledge TOR's existence.

[truJedi]

As horrible as this may be, there is a silver lining, however thin: if LA ends up shutting down, we might never have to acknowledge TOR's existence.

 

YYYYYYAAAAAYYYYYY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

im counting down the days lol

[Sabretooth]

Isn't TOR a BioWare-EA project with LucasArts' licensing? I don't think it'd be affected if LucasArts shut down (which I really think they won't).

[Lynk Former]

What's with all the TOR hate?

[DarthParametric]

LA shutting down (which seems unlikely) would have no effect on TOR. LA's original role with TOR was primarily publisher in certain territories (although they did help out with some of the voice over production apparently). Publishing responsibility has now been fully assumed by EA. Star Wars licensing is handled by Lucas Licensing, a division of Lucasfilm. It has never had anything to do with LA.

[Endorenna]

As horrible as this may be, there is a silver lining, however thin: if LA ends up shutting down, we might never have to acknowledge TOR's existence.

 

Doc, I'm disappointed! For once I don't like your taste!

 

(Read: TOR looks awesome. )

 

Anyway...yeah, after the crap that was TFU II, I really don't give a damn about Lucasarts. Give Bioware the Star Wars license so they can make more RPGs and try their hand at shooters with Battlefront III. And declare TFU II non-canon so they can revamp the story and the series. "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II: The Good Edition: By the Dude Who Wrote Mass Effect"

[Sabretooth]

"Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II: The Good Edition: By the Dude Who Wrote Mass Effect"

 

"The Good Edition: By the Dude Who Wrote Mass Effect"

 

[Nedak]

As horrible as this may be, there is a silver lining, however thin: if LA ends up shutting down, we might never have to acknowledge TOR's existence.

 

QFE, this would make me very happy.

[Lynk Former]

Again... what's with all the TOR hate? (I'm starting to wonder if anyone will actually answer my question...)

[Sabretooth]

Again... what's with all the TOR hate? (I'm starting to wonder if anyone will actually answer my question...)

 

Long story short:

 

1. People wanted a single-player KotOR III (which was apparently planned and then cancelled) to complete the story arc

2. BioWare announced that TOR will be KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

3. It's an MMO.

4. It has conversations just as derpy as the first Mass Effect.

5. It has an absolute disregard for all that happened in the KotOR games and is set in a retarded alternate version of the Star Wars OT, complete with Han Solo lookalikes, faux-Vaders, faux-Stormtroopers and so on.

[Lynk Former]

1. People wanted a single-player KotOR III (which was apparently planned and then cancelled) to complete the story arc

2. BioWare announced that TOR will be KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

Yeah, I wanted KotOR III too.

 

3. It's an MMO.

Not a huge fan of MMO's either.

 

 

4. It has conversations just as derpy as the first Mass Effect.

We'll actually see when we play the game, unless everyone here can see into the future.

 

5. It has an absolute disregard for all that happened in the KotOR games and is set in a retarded alternate version of the Star Wars OT, complete with Han Solo lookalikes, faux-Vaders, faux-Stormtroopers and so on.

I thought this is what practically every Star Wars game does.

[TriggerGod]

2. BioWare announced that TOR will be KotOR 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

3. It's an MMO.

4. It has conversations just as derpy as the first Mass Effect.

 

Honestly, those are the only reasons I dislike the news about TOR. I can live with designs imitating that of the movies, and if it couldn't have been a single player sequel a la KOTOR 3, I'd have liked it to be a game similar to Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (which I am patiently awaiting for PC release) or like Portal 2 (Likewise) that has a single player game, but also has a separate, multiplayer "attachment" that you don't have to touch if you don't want to. But from the news I've read, you could play TOR almost entirely on your own, but you'd need friends and/or other people for certain parts, at least once for the main quest.

 

But saying it'll be the equivalent of at least 7 sequels just sets them up for disappointment, considering the fanbase the first 2 achieved.

 

I have this personal dislike of MMOs, I'm not sure where it roots, but its there, and it gnaws at me when I see a spinoff game that is an MMO, that makes me want to buy it because its of that same franchise, but at the same time not want to because its an MMO.

 

And yeah, "He shot him," from that dialog or voice acting (whatever it was) trailer a while back made me think A+ "20 novels worth of dialog with professional voice quality". And in case you didn't realize that was sarcasm, I'm gonna go and strike out that A+ and replace with a C-, at best.

 

And yes, I am a prophet, go ahead and scrutinize me. I'm a gypsy traveling Eurasia and I read your palms and I steal your babies then brainwash them into being our slaves give you friendly advice on how to raise your children.

[Lynk Former]

I'm sure not everything about it will be amazing, every game has its flaws... I'm just finding it hard to see why there seems to be an air of absolute hate over it. It's not like if TOR dies, KotOR III will come back into service.

[Sabretooth]

Many people had given up hope over KotOR III, it's just that TOR's existence looks like BioWare and LucasArts gleefully pissing all over the first two games. Think if RotJ was canned and Lucas released the Prequel movies early instead.

[Darth Avlectus]

I think the main 3 reasons for all the MMO hate:

1) sort of tweaks the existing fanbase community (I notice modders in general seem to not look favorably upon it)

2) MMOs cost money on a monthly basis and you can't just fully own the thing to play and review at any time you want with no more strings.

3) the gamble of it all, that unless it goes big it will land on its face; it leaves a bit of a blemish for its respective franchise.

 

or like Portal 2 (Likewise) that has a single player game, but also has a separate, multiplayer "attachment" that you don't have to touch if you don't want to. But from the news I've read, you could play the game almost entirely on your own, but you'd need friends and/or other people for certain parts, at least once for the main quest.

 

Curious.

I've heard of people going rather extensively into it and since GMOD is around...is it not possible to essentially create your own game on this engine? Sure it's probably complicated as hell. All I have done with older versions is make some stupid pictures for a webcomic...that got lost in the abyss once that server went down. But I digress: in essence is it not possible to create your own...playable thing with it? Isn't that essentially how TF2 started? As a mod?

 

I have this personal dislike of MMOs, I'm not sure where it roots, but its there, and it gnaws at me when I see a spinoff game that is an MMO, that makes me want to buy it because its of that same franchise, but at the same time not want to because its an MMO.

I think this explains most peoples' thoughts and feelings on the matter. Well, most people here anyway. That and what saberz said too.

 

I wasn't too happy they abandoned K3, that's my main gripe.

 

I'm curious in general about the MMO and gauging peoples' minds and opinions on it since I never (appreciably) played one for any real length of time. Used to be totally against a SW MMO for this era, if only because SWG was supposedly such a flop and of all the complaints about MMOs I hear in general.

 

I kinda don't care either way anymore, if only for hope that this MMO might actually take off into something big and promising for SW as a whole. I have my doubts.

[TriggerGod]

I mistyped on what I meant in my last post that GTASW quoted, I've edited that part

 

I've heard of people going rather extensively into it and since GMOD is around...is it not possible to essentially create your own game on this engine? Sure it's probably complicated as hell. All I have done with older versions is make some stupid pictures for a webcomic...that got lost in the abyss once that server went down. But I digress: in essence is it not possible to create your own...playable thing with it? Isn't that essentially how TF2 started? As a mod?

 

People have been making entirely new games, or expansions, using the source engine, but not via GMod, as that is only a sandbox editor. You can make interesting stuff, like for a movie (there is a full length gmod movie out there somewhere, based off of War of the Worlds IIRC), but after that its usefulness ends. You could get the Source Engine devkit and make your own levels, and that could eventually lead into creating your own games. The two big "modding" engines I can think of are the Unreal and the Source; both are fairly higher-end graphics and physics, without sacrificing that much power. In fact, as a little side project, me and some friends are working on a video game completely from scratch, only pre-made would be the Unreal Engine.

 

Although, I have ask; what does this have to do with TOR? Source engine and TF2 and gmod have pretty much no bearing on TOR, aside from TOR's graphics reminding me of TF2's.

[Sabretooth]

I thought this is what practically every Star Wars game does.

 

While KotOR did that, KotOR II steered cleared of that mentality. Besides, even KotOR was forgivable compared to how blatantly TOR resembles the OT.

 

It's understandable that they want fans to recognize Star Wars icons, but then choosing to set it in the KotOR era, and even using the KotOR branding is just proving that you want to make money off of KotOR fans, since the game absolutely disregards everything that happened in the KotOR games, and then claims to be 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

[Lynk Former]

Isn't it set 300 years or so after KotOR?... and from vids I've watched of the making of the game, they're not disregarding KotOR at all. It's just that the events of KotOR were hundreds of years into the past. There's apparently quite a few quests that relate back to the KotOR games in TOR...

[Sabretooth]

Yeah, quests like "Once upon a time there was a dude called *insert KotOR NPC* who left behind this armour - go fetch it for me."

 

Setting the game 300 years after KotOR is disregarding KotOR. It's like if you made RotJ set 500 years in the future with a whole new cast and a roll that says "Oh that one guy named Vader died, he isn't important - BUT LOOK AT THE NEW THREAT111!!!"

[Lynk Former]

Actually it's more like "Once upon a time there was a Dark Lord of the Sith known as 'Revan' who left behind many secrets..."

 

As for it's setting... having it 300 years later is a lot better than setting it a year or so after KotOR II... I mean, by the way some people are reacting, if this was set straight in the middle of when KotOR occurred then there'd be even more rage going on.

 

At least this way you can all hold onto a shred of hope that KotOR III may exist in the future. And yes, I realise that the project was cancelled and that LA and BW said whatever... but companies always change their minds about stuff... like the did with KotOR III initially XD lol.

[DarthParametric]

Again... what's with all the TOR hate? (I'm starting to wonder if anyone will actually answer my question...)

I think a certain portion of the hate (at least here on LF) comes not so much from the fact that TOR is an MMO, but that it's Bioware making it not Obsidian.

 

Personally, I'm not too keen on TOR. I would have much preferred a SP RPG, but if it had to be an MMO then I would have liked something a lot better than what it looks like we are going to get. In particular, the space content with it's "casual friendly" on-rails shooting looks uber lame. I was really hoping for something along the lines of JTL from SWG, as that was by far the best part of that IMO. The rest of TOR looks to be just like any other yawn-inducing MMO grindfest. Sure there's the whole VO thing and all, but I really don't see that magically improving the usual "go and kill 20 wamp rats and bring me their tails" MMO quest fare. The whole "cinematic experience" BS that is driving game development these days annoys the hell out of me.

[Sabretooth]

Actually it's more like "Once upon a time there was a Dark Lord of the Sith known as 'Revan' who left behind many secrets..."

But the KotOR series was about Revan in the first place. It was about the choices he made affecting the galaxy. The third KotOR was expected to follow that, and reveal the fate of Revan, or seal it altogether. Instead, now it's left ignored because it won't be very marketable to a new audience.

 

As for it's setting... having it 300 years later is a lot better than setting it a year or so after KotOR II... I mean, by the way some people are reacting, if this was set straight in the middle of when KotOR occurred then there'd be even more rage going on.

How is that?

 

At least this way you can all hold onto a shred of hope that KotOR III may exist in the future. And yes, I realise that the project was cancelled and that LA and BW said whatever... but companies always change their minds about stuff... like the did with KotOR III initially XD lol.

Well yes... at least so long as they don't actually announce the game, we can hold onto a shred of hope that they will announce it.

[Lynk Former]

@ DarthParametric: I don't quite understand why BioWare and not Obsidian making TOR would cause such hate... hmmm.

 

Again, how do you know this? Have you played the game to know for sure? I mean, I understand that people don't like what they see so far, but I can't understand how people are so sure about a game that they've never even really played themselves.

 

 

@ Sabre: Actually the fate of Revan isn't being ignored in TOR from what I've seen.,, It's just not the main focus. And the reason why TOR is better off 300 years later than a year later is because LA seems to want to push this as an MMO and not something that will be the way the KotOR series traditionally is. So if TOR was set with the KotOR timeline, I'm sure a lot more people would get pissed off over the whole gameplay change into an MMO framework... which people obviously don't like very much to begin with.

 

Actually I meant that since they haven't gone with the option of making TOR set within the KotOR timeframe, there's still a shred of hope that KotOR III will still exist some time in the future as a true sequel.

 

 

 

 

 

I hated the fact that KotOR III was cancelled in favour of TOR at first... but I think I'm coming around to the idea of TOR more and more and have decided that I'm gonna get into it.

 

Also, Sabre, your opinion doesn't count because you don't pay for your games lulz. I kid, I kid.