Everyone loves the holidays. Family coming together, putting up decorations, spending loads of money you do not have, and no one can forget the food. It is no wonder game developers try to emulate that in their MMORPGs, where millions of players all around the world come together to participate in the festivities. Holidays can be an important part of an MMO when implemented. It breaks up the monotony, brings people together to experience new content and with new, holiday themed loot. However, with no real holidays in a galaxy far, far away, besides a couple found in the depths of the Expanded Universe it could be a hard one to justify. With BioWare taking a stand against holidays outside Star Wars, what could this mean for them in Star Wars: The Old Republic? We invite you to follow the jump to find out.
As we watch Star Wars: The Old Republic rev up for launch, the fan base following the game - including our own community here at DH - has been split over whether or not BioWare should implement in-game holidays, and if so, what form they should take. In March, developers slipped an answer to the questions about in-game holidays into a PAX East Meet and Greet session. Their response was not terribly surprising, given their ongoing discussion of story immersion and the importance of the fourth pillar in SWTOR. To wit, BioWare will not be bringing non-contextual holidays into SWTOR, but we can expect to see Star Wars holidays within the game. This leads to some interesting questions regarding content and implementation.
Some might interpret the in-game presence of Star Wars holidays to mean that every holiday previously encountered in the lexicon might be celebrated in The Old Republic. We shouldn't all knit ourselves red robes for Wookiee Life Day just yet, however. The holidays we have seen in other Star Wars games will not necessarily be making an appearance in SWTOR. The game developers have defined the chronological setting for SWTOR in a very specific way, requiring that any holidays celebrated within the game will need to have reached a high degree of cultural popularity prior to the Treaty of Coruscant.
Image from Wookieepedia
Luckily for fans of holidays from other Star Wars properties, the origin dates of these celebrations are not, in most cases, clearly defined. Take Wookiee Life Day as an example; although no origin date for the holiday is available, we do know that the Wookiees themselves were enslaved and dispersed to off-world locations prior to the Treaty of Coruscant. We might conjecture that the Wookiee diaspora was widespread enough that their cultural observances may have disseminated themselves into other cultures by the time of SWTOR, making it possible that one of their holidays may have been widely observed by other races.
Certainly, the historical time frame of SWTOR allows the developers great leeway in this regard, as with so many aspects of story. They can cherry pick from among existing Star Wars holidays, framing those they wish to include with background and history, and just as easily exclude those holidays they do not want in the game. In addition, they have infinite creative space to imagine new holidays and celebrations, as cultural pre-history for this game is sketchy at best. Channeling ideas from this wide-open field of imaginative possibility through the parameters already established by existing game structure and functionality within SWTOR generates an interesting range of questions and options for the BioWare team.
In terms of universally celebrated holidays, it is difficult to imagine many cases wherein the Republic and the Empire would be found sharing common ideals strongly enough that they might end up celebrating the same holidays. Harvest could be a common good; escaping universal catastrophe might be worth celebrating by both factions. (Even with the example of Harvest, however, there are potential problems in that different planets would experience harvest at different times, but let's set that aside for now.) This type of universal celebration might give rise to holidays which are observed throughout the game, on every world. Another type of universal holiday might be a cultural celebration having its roots within a race which is ubiquitously disseminated across the planets of SWTOR, such as Humans, Hutts, Jawas and so forth.
However, there would certainly be events that would have vastly different significance depending upon which side of the Force one found himself. Holidays which celebrate the Empire or the Republic, or which commemorate dates, victories or figures of importance to one side of the conflict would surely be anathema to the opposing side. Whether or not BioWare will attempt to include factional celebrations remains an open question.
In addition, it is clear that the individual planets within SWTOR would certainly have indigenous celebrations. It is a possibility that BioWare will attempt to implement some localized celebrations to add flavor to the game. Of course, bringing a huge MMO community to one localized area risks creating a lag fest of epic proportions, such as the River of Souls event which brought the Rift community to its knees in April. Implementation of holidays localized to one planet would have to be handled carefully, perhaps spreading the celebration over many days and many physical locations on the planet.
Regardless of which holidays BioWare wishes to include, or how they plan to implement them, there are many reasons to look forward to them. Even players who loathe world events, such as holidays, within MMOs might find themselves benefiting because so many other players will flock to them, leaving less competition for activities such as gathering and crafting. For those who do enjoy them, these events create social spaces to enjoy the community in a different way, as well as leveling opportunities, increased itemization for RPG purposes, a stage on which the game developers can showcase their creativity and a break from the normal reality created by the game. While I, for one, would have loved to torture my Sith by plopping a Santa hat on her head, I am more excited to learn what goodies BioWare has in store with, quite literally, an entire universe of holiday possibilities open to them for Star Wars: The Old Republic.
But what do you think? Chime in the comments section of this post and let us know your thoughts on this hot button issue.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/18/2011 10:10:47 AM- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/16/2011 4:12:44 AMhttp://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Boonta_Eve_Classic
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 12:28:21 PM- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 9:12:14 PM- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 7:28:05 AM- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 5:06:17 AMThat kind of crap is for the kiddies, and they already have the Star Wars prequels and World of Warcraft designed just for them.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 11:12:54 PMThat is most likely how it will go down. There aren't nearly enough holidays, consistent with the timeline of SWTOR, for BioWare to have them spread out evenly over the calendar year. BioWare will probably have to create some that fit the lore and, most importantly, ones that aren't just mirrors of real life holidays.
Luckily, if LA gives them some freedom to create, BioWare has a plethora of options. Gladiatorial festivals, Hutts (who else could come up with holidays just to have another reason to celebrate?), harvest festivals, Jedi religious festivals (maybe something like a Jedi take on an Obon style festival, honoring the ancestors), etc.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 3:12:05 AMThere is nothing like defending every zone (or Planet in TOR's case) from being overrun by real world bosses and clashing against a future raid boss in the open world with thousands of people from both factions fighting.
The best part is when the boss is defeated and before your very eyes a raid portal opens up. I really hope BioWare can emulate this.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 3:01:21 AMTo me, this seems a pretty bad commercial move towards the casual community, who doesn't know a lot about star wars, beyond the movies. I don't thinks it's going to be a deal breaker for the game, but for those people a "holiday" whether they call it Sithmas or the mid-rim festival, would need to be featured at the same time actual holidays happens and would need to more or less remind them of that same holiday.
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 4:00:32 AMBecause that's what it sounds like you're saying. I don't understand this "catering to casuals" thing. You have to cater to fans, the people who will play this game and love it. That's who will keep your community going, not people who want "Sithmas!".
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 3:07:35 PMThey are not dumb, in fact, they are probably more grounded to reality if anything. Casual players don't dress themselves as a jedi and they don't role-play. They just play the game because it's fun, or because it looks fun. They don't know much about star wars and 90% of the time is not a sign of lack of intelligence, but simply because they don't care enough to read about it...
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 1:18:26 AMWhy would it even be a commonly known event at all? And why even include it? It isn't a very good event overall.
I can imagine something like a sports event. Like an annual Champions Bowl of Huttball. This would even be an event both factions could partake in.
Most likely, and something I hope for, are some national events. Like the mentioned Empire Day and a week of Zhell Rememberance (for when the humans defeated the Taung, the later Mandalorians, on Coruscant).
Another event could be the establishment of the Jedi Order, while the Sith could have the Planetfall for when they landed on Korriban.
Charming... yes? http://imgur.com/r6WrI
- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 1:09:37 AM- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 12:57:26 AM- View User Profile
- View Posts
- Send Message
Posted 9/15/2011 12:54:01 AM