When people talk about Star Wars Galaxies, they usually start with the obvious landmarks: the sandbox systems, the player cities, the housing, the professions, the social chaos, and the long shadow the game still casts over Star Wars MMO history. All of that matters. But one of the more interesting angles is how closely Galaxies seems to line up with the way George Lucas thought about technology, online interaction, and participatory storytelling. This was not just a Star Wars game where players ran missions. It was one of the earliest serious attempts to let people actually live inside the galaxy, which is a big reason it still deserves a prominent place in our complete Star Wars games hub. Lucas was already thinking beyond passive entertainment One reason Galaxies feels so relevant in hindsight is that George Lucas had been talking for years about technology, media, and the future of storytelling….
Rich Vogel
Rich Vogel to Head New Austin Studio
Bethesda Softworks has announced the formation of a new studio in Austin, Texas. Called “Battlecry Studios“, the development team will be headed by ex-BioWare/SWTOR veteran Rich Vogel. – via MMORGP.com. Right now they are working on an unannounced project but it should be very interesting to see what they come up with. Vogel has a long history in the video game industry and recently works as executive producer of development of SWTOR for BioWare. He also worked on Ultima Online, and Star Wars Galaxies as well as other online and console titles during his 20+ years in game development. I’m really interested in seeing what he will do with Battlecry Studios and what kind of projects they will put out. It could also be a good thing for the gaming industry since The new Austin studio announced they are currently hiring other experienced game developers to fill key roles for this upcoming and unannounced project….