Darth333
12-05-2004, 08:33 AM
More of Chris Avellone's ramblings:
I added my own personal ramblings in orange
I did not used Spoiler tags as I consider this remains quite general and does not reveal any part of the story. Obsidian simply reitarates what we all know already but with an explanation on why they made those decisions.
/ Designer Ramblings: New Cast
There are reasons why we didn’t use the original cast from Knights of the Old Republic 1 as companions in the sequel. It isn’t because Bastila suddenly got her own TV series and decided that computer games were beneath her, or those pictures of Carth at the leather club that surfaced earlier this year, or anything like that, although their agents and lawyers might tell you differently.
One reason was the sequence of events that occurred in Kotor 1. There’s many different ways the game could end up, and not all of them would allow for the companions to travel together again happily ever after. ok we all know this I think...and I don't care about Bastila's "nice ass" as you guys say ... As for Carth, it seems that we have a good replacement for him with Atton Rand :xp:
The second reason is that in some cases, we felt the stories for these companions had come full circle in the first game. Each of them had their problems and challenges during the Jedi Civil War, which we felt had had a chance to be addressed in the game and resolved (especially Juhani, Carth, Bastila, Zaalbar, etc.). does the "etc." covers Canderous, Jolee and Mission??? We already know that HK-47 and T3 are coming back - thateing said, he does not exclude cameos
The third reason is keeping the “voice.” Not only is it risky to take someone else’s character and try to do them justice (which can be a painful experience for developer and player), but once you’ve read a batch of Star Wars novels, there’s nothing more painful than trying to watch others get Han Solo and Luke Skywalker “right,” which is difficult, because all you’re doing is faking the character - you didn’t create them, you’re only mimicking their voice and personality, and while sometimes this works, oftentimes it just ends up creating something less than the original. Nothing to say here apart that I agree
The fourth reason was stagnation. Knights of the Old Republic is a brand-new Star Wars license, and as such, has a chance for a fresh start. Rather than keep the same characters for 4, 5, or 6 games (if it ever gets that far), erm...and 3?...does that mean that 3 is coming for sure? :sheepdanc we have a chance to keep shaking up the universe with every game and keep the universe from becoming stagnant – again, after reading a ton of Star Wars novels, using the same 5-6 characters again and again hamstrung by the same series events starts becoming confining, and you can feel it in some of the stories and novels. I think that’s part of the reason they started introducing a new cast in the later novels, some of which fans have really enjoyed.
The last reason was more of a personal decision. For me, creating companion characters is one of the highlights of developing a role-playing game, and who you travel with over the course of the game and who acts as a sounding board for your character’s thoughts and feelings can end up being a large chunk of the role-playing experience. Furthermore, there are certain aspects to the Star Wars universe that were more appropriate for certain character types to advocate or denounce (which Kreia and Atton do considerably, as do others), and it felt better to do them with new characters than to use the old ones. There’s certain things I’ve always wanted to say about the Star Wars universe that would be difficult for the K1 cast to voice and still remain in character.
That said, we did try to include characters from K1 for continuity, although we tried to take many of the underdogs from K1 and inject more into them – this should come across more notably with T3 (you’ll encounter him before the others).
Anyway, had to say it.
Off to Gen Con!
/ End Designer Ramblings: New Cast
Can't wait!!! :D
I added my own personal ramblings in orange
I did not used Spoiler tags as I consider this remains quite general and does not reveal any part of the story. Obsidian simply reitarates what we all know already but with an explanation on why they made those decisions.
/ Designer Ramblings: New Cast
There are reasons why we didn’t use the original cast from Knights of the Old Republic 1 as companions in the sequel. It isn’t because Bastila suddenly got her own TV series and decided that computer games were beneath her, or those pictures of Carth at the leather club that surfaced earlier this year, or anything like that, although their agents and lawyers might tell you differently.
One reason was the sequence of events that occurred in Kotor 1. There’s many different ways the game could end up, and not all of them would allow for the companions to travel together again happily ever after. ok we all know this I think...and I don't care about Bastila's "nice ass" as you guys say ... As for Carth, it seems that we have a good replacement for him with Atton Rand :xp:
The second reason is that in some cases, we felt the stories for these companions had come full circle in the first game. Each of them had their problems and challenges during the Jedi Civil War, which we felt had had a chance to be addressed in the game and resolved (especially Juhani, Carth, Bastila, Zaalbar, etc.). does the "etc." covers Canderous, Jolee and Mission??? We already know that HK-47 and T3 are coming back - thateing said, he does not exclude cameos
The third reason is keeping the “voice.” Not only is it risky to take someone else’s character and try to do them justice (which can be a painful experience for developer and player), but once you’ve read a batch of Star Wars novels, there’s nothing more painful than trying to watch others get Han Solo and Luke Skywalker “right,” which is difficult, because all you’re doing is faking the character - you didn’t create them, you’re only mimicking their voice and personality, and while sometimes this works, oftentimes it just ends up creating something less than the original. Nothing to say here apart that I agree
The fourth reason was stagnation. Knights of the Old Republic is a brand-new Star Wars license, and as such, has a chance for a fresh start. Rather than keep the same characters for 4, 5, or 6 games (if it ever gets that far), erm...and 3?...does that mean that 3 is coming for sure? :sheepdanc we have a chance to keep shaking up the universe with every game and keep the universe from becoming stagnant – again, after reading a ton of Star Wars novels, using the same 5-6 characters again and again hamstrung by the same series events starts becoming confining, and you can feel it in some of the stories and novels. I think that’s part of the reason they started introducing a new cast in the later novels, some of which fans have really enjoyed.
The last reason was more of a personal decision. For me, creating companion characters is one of the highlights of developing a role-playing game, and who you travel with over the course of the game and who acts as a sounding board for your character’s thoughts and feelings can end up being a large chunk of the role-playing experience. Furthermore, there are certain aspects to the Star Wars universe that were more appropriate for certain character types to advocate or denounce (which Kreia and Atton do considerably, as do others), and it felt better to do them with new characters than to use the old ones. There’s certain things I’ve always wanted to say about the Star Wars universe that would be difficult for the K1 cast to voice and still remain in character.
That said, we did try to include characters from K1 for continuity, although we tried to take many of the underdogs from K1 and inject more into them – this should come across more notably with T3 (you’ll encounter him before the others).
Anyway, had to say it.
Off to Gen Con!
/ End Designer Ramblings: New Cast
Can't wait!!! :D