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BioWare MMO !? ( +Screens ?! )

JointnessJointness Member Posts: 25
in The Rumor Room

WTF ?

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/8408/vg01donotspread4gl.jpg
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New Studio Recruiting for Massively Multiplayer Online RPG Project

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada, March 13, 2006

Canadian videogame developer BioWare Corp. has announced the opening of a new studio, BioWare Austin, based in Austin, Texas. It is the second of BioWare's studios and the first to be located outside of Canada.

BioWare Austin has already begun work on a Massively Multiplayer Online roleplaying game (MMORPG) title; the new game will mark BioWare's debut in the Massively Multiplayer Online space. BioWare has recruited some of the top talent in MMO and RPG development, both to manage the development efforts at BioWare Austin and to collaborate with the experienced team at BioWare Edmonton, to develop a game that combines the best of BioWare's great past games with a compelling persistent online experience. Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare's Creative Director, whose previous credits include lead or co-lead design roles on Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™, Neverwinter Nights™, Baldur's Gate™ and Baldur's Gate II™. Also leading the BWA team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton. Richard Vogel brings 15 years of experience to BioWare Austin, previously serving as VP of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment's Austin studio, as well as launching Ultima Online™ as a senior producer at Origin. Gordon Walton recently served as VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.

"BioWare is committed to a seamless collaboration between our two studios to ensure the same high standards of quality and creativity our dedicated teams have always delivered," said Ray Muzyka, co-founder and Joint CEO of BioWare. "With our extensive heritage in the roleplaying genre, BioWare Austin is extremely well positioned to innovate in the massively multiplayer online space for BioWare's valued community of fans."

The new BioWare Austin comes soon after the formation of BioWare/Pandemic Studios, a partnership facilitated by private equity firm Elevation Partners. The new entity combines top videogame developers BioWare Corp., an industry leader in the role-playing game genre, and Pandemic Studios, an award-winning developer of best-selling action titles.

Both BioWare Austin and BioWare Edmonton currently have job openings for programmers, designers, artists, animators, world builders and writers, with new jobs being posted regularly. Applicants may view job postings and submit materials through jobs.bioware.com. BioWare Austin will also be recruiting, along with BioWare Edmonton and sister studios Pandemic Studios LA and Pandemic Australia, at the Game Developers Conference at the San Jose Convention Centre in San Jose, California, March 20-24, 2006.


Keywords here:

Austin - Also current 'home' of swg
SOE VP
Collaboration

Comments

  • paulscottpaulscott Member Posts: 5,613

    whats in it.... screens don't tell much beside prettiness.

    i saw farms in the backround in the first one.  player owned? 

    I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.

  • tvalentinetvalentine Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 4,216
    looks great cant wait

    image

    Playing: EVE Online
    Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
    Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
    KUF2's Official Website - http://www.kufii.com/ENG/ -

  • NadrilNadril Member Posts: 1,276
    IF this is true, and bioware is making an MMORPG... well, what can I say, it will probaly own my soul.

    Baulders gate 2 was one of the best RPG's ever made... I can only imagine what they would do with an MMO.


  • AmarantharAmaranthar Member EpicPosts: 5,797

    I don't know why anyone would get excited about it. The lead guy, James Ohlen, has produced nothing but levelling class based games. He in the same fold as those who brought you EQ, DAoC, and WoW. If you liked those games, then yes, go ahead and get excited.

    But from my point of view, class/level based games thrive on telling you
    A) "you can't do that"
    B) "grind, grind, grind"
    C) "don't talk to those players, your level are over there"
    D) "Everything you've done, everything you've earned, everything you've accomplished has served only to get you to this point. It is all useless now. You have graduated from gold to platinum. Go there and do this to proceed."
    E) "When you reach the end, we will give you more, new, bigger content that's just like all the other content we've shoved down your throat, only it will look different."

    Maybe this one will be different. That would be a rare thing.



    Once upon a time....

  • darkmandarkman Member UncommonPosts: 767
    The bioware MMO announcement is real old news, it was reported on this site when it was announced (like a month ago). As for the screenshot, well that's news to me.

  • CaesarsGhostCaesarsGhost Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 2,136

    It looks like NWN2 to me...

    Not that NWN can't be used to do MMO stuff.

    - CaesarsGhost

    Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
    "When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."

  • WolfjunkieWolfjunkie Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 985
    Well, that didn't say much.
    I've always liked Bioware's games, but no chance in hell will i start hyping about the game now :P
    Does they even have the concepts for the games, layed down? Bioware are pretty damn talented when it comes to creating a nice, deep story. But their games have always been rather simple stream-lined games, following the classic 'level' method, as well as(At least a few of them) the D20 system. And really, i find D20 to be extremely boring when you look into it >_<


  • AnofalyeAnofalye Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 7,433

    To me it is the best news I heard in a very long time, when I hear it (a month ago already?).

    What game will they make out of it, I dunno, but I also know this is the company who grow with Black Isles Studios...which mean...they can take it back from BG 2 and create the best MMO experience I can dream of.

    There are far more chances and probabilities that this game will rock and be my new home then any other currently announced MMO.  Those guys KNOW everything they need to know to make the best game ever, now what they do with this knowledge and if they fall into the 'Aradune' approach is completely up to them.

    At worst, I will find DDO v2.  At best, I will call it home.  I am really hyped and want to believe.

    - "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren

  • boba23boba23 Member Posts: 8

    Sure woulda been nice if they had gotten the DD0 franchise. They did a good job with NWN.

    I'm hoping this bioware mmo will be a fantasy game but we'll have to see. If you listen to the SWG/NGE haters that like to try and start up all the down with NGE rumors they (bioware) will be doing SWG2ish.

  • Bane82Bane82 Member UncommonPosts: 1,242

    The link didn't work for me, it says 403 Error, anyone have another link to this pic they're referring to?

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