In Star Wars: The Old Republic on the bounty hunter / imperial agent starting planet of Hutta is a cantina which is part of Nem'ro the Hutt's palace. In that cantina is a table with two non-player characters facing each other: Hun Duo and Greepo. I wonder which of the two will shoot first.
A couple tables away there's a wookie playing cards with a protocol droid... and he has torn it's arms off (as well as the head, that droid is pretty much done for).
On a larger level though the whole "just like Star Wars" vibe is nonsense. Everything is technologically and culturally frozen. It's as if we somehow magically travelled back to Ancient Egypt and found them using iphones and playing WoW.
there's also a cute reference, also on Hutta, I believe, to "Night at Roxbury"
Haha I know you're joking, but don't you think theirs a sliiight difference between The Old Republic's references to the Star Wars Films... and WoW's references to all aspects of real life popular culture?!
They should include a canned sequence which ends when Hun shoots Greepo, and then change it in a patch a few months from now.
Getting a quest that has you unfreeze somebody from Carbonite is a Star Wars reference. "Hun Duo" is just silly.
It's interesting to consider this feature in the context of Raph Koster's recent comments about Immersion. Basically the designers broke immersion to put in a fairly crappy in-joke for Star Wars nerds.
That ties in with what Raph is saying, that essentially no one making AAA MMOs cares in the slightest about immersion these days.
Stabs you realize the old republic setting was previously created not even for kotor 1/2, but originally in tons of Sw novels and comics and stuff?
Youd rather bioware just decide to change that to make it more different than the movie era? Wouldn't that garner outrage, especially from kotor fans?
Secondly...one little joke and that breaks your immersion?
I guess any game with a UI, that uses mouse/keyboard must be even worse??
It's still ridiculous. 3000 years before Han Solo met Greebo in a cantina an identical smuggler met an identical alien in a similar bar? That isn't a history, it's a loop.
Stabs, I think Bioware is just following the lead of Episodes 1-3 with its immersion-breaking references and in-jokes.
Yeah, and what about the fact that you're drinking a diet Pepsi while you play on a computer clearly not from the Star Wars era?
Come on, J. Dang, weak troll job.
Agree with Tobold, I'm much more bothered than even slightly entertained by pop culture references that become dated in my "RPG".
Some of us continue to read fiction and expect more from games trying to break the story-telling barrier.
Are people really that worried about immersion?
I mean, admittedly, it gets harder to be immersed in fiction as you grow older anyway, but I feel like very rarely have I been challenged as far as immersion goes. I don't know if I am just unnaturally able to suspend disbelief or if some people just need a MASSIVE amount of help to stay immersed.
...and I realize this comment sounds awful, but I just don't understand these complaints.
Clearly the game would have been improved if they were generic NPCs with utterly forgettable, nonsense names like XLkjhdfif and Loohhajn. Or even better: NPCs with no names at all!
To be honest, if you are looking for immersion in an MMO, you are looking in the entirely wrong genre of game. Or have you closed General Chat and erased the memory of that flashpoint run with XxBobaFettxX and company?
This is the sort of thing that is likely to get a small niche of the blogging community hot and bothered.
Many of whom don't play SWTOR.
Most of whom wouldn't have noticed the 'Easter Egg'.
I picture these guys that take immersion to the nth level dressed up in robes or Star Wars gear with a light sabor next to them while playing the game.
And Stabes you don't think that in 3-4000 years there could never be a smuggler being threatened by a bounty hunter twice in the whole galaxy? I suggest you see how the mob or any drug organization repeats itself and does the same thing every few months.
Not a SW fan, but I think the events of SWTOR and KOTOR are rather 300 years before Episode I.