One video interview I overlooked so far is this one produced and uploaded by NVIDIA. I’m sad to say I don’t know the name of the charming interviewer but I imagine the video will be featured eventually on NVIDIA’s blog.
Cory Butler handing out spoilers: Alderaan will eventually get destroyed!
In 3.5 minutes they manage to talk about how PAX Prime attendees are playing all 8 classes, how Cory and the SWTOR team were focusing on endgame and PVP at PAX. They touch on the Eternity Vault, Alderaan and Huttball and plans for beta. Watch here:
Star Wars: The Old Republic Interview PAX Prime 2011:
It is revealed that Cory Butler’s favourite spot in Star Wars: The Old Republic is Nar Shaddaa which brings us to this interesting quote:
NVIDIA: Can you gamble there?
Cory Butler: I don’t think we’ve talked about that in detail yet but uhm… We’ll probably keep that one in our back pocket for now
This sets the wheels of my imagination to spin on overdrive. Does he mean gambling on Huttball? Or could it – gasp – be playable Sabacc tables?
What do you think?
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I thought sabaac/pazaak and the like was on the big wall of crazy? If it’s in the game i will hit the roof!
the whole Gambling thing is an interesting one.
Wow, said that they would like to do it, but there was some laws in certain country’s that made the it illegal to play if they had it.
I remember Asheron’s Call had gambling, but it definitely wasnt as popular.
Yeah I’m not sure what to make of it. But I did do a little hopeful ‘Squee’ when I watched the interview! For real
D
Why would it be illegal? KOTOR had it, and Counter Strike had it, both of which were and are played on mass in countless countries? I could understand age rating issues, but not out right banning
None of those games are an MMO. The problem is that in MMOs you can generally buy currency with real money, albeit against the EULA.
So say you buy gold, then use that gold to gamble and double how much you have? That’s essentially going in to a casino, buying poker chips and then doubling them as well.
I know that this is not a perfect simile because the company itself is not selling the in-game currency but I imagine that there is a lot of tape that would have to be waded through to get that kind of gambling in the game.
Anyway, that is my interpretation of any difficulties that could be had. Even so, I would love to see pazaak and/or sabacc in the game.
Does it matter of which genre it is? Because i can’t see them accepting gambling on one platform to deny on it another – it sounds out two messages, they simultaneously denounce and support gambling.
As for buying gold, would that be the majority? I can’t see people spending say, 50 bucks, and then going into a Casino with a high chance of losing it all than getting a return, as is the way with gambling. Not that i’m denying people would try it
They could well be integrating a ‘commendation’ system with the ‘gambling’ system, so you wouldn’t gamble or win real money, you’d instead win/gamble commendations which could be exchanged for none premium (or cosmetic) gear. Which i guess would satisfy the EULA or any other grumbles about buying gold, because the player would purchase ‘commendations (chips)’ with in-game currency in the hope of gambling them for more commendations, which in turn would get them cosmetic/none premium gear to sell. How does that sound?
An easy fix to this would be to create an alternate currency with “gambling” all together. For instance: you start with x amount of currency. You gamble to win or lose currency; with this you can buy BoP items only so that gold sellers have no reason to participate and therefore does not become like an online casino. Of course there would be implementation concerns and balance issues but i’m sure the fine developers at BW could sort that part out.
My wheels of my imagination have been on overdrive since the beginning of the year. lol
[...] One of the nice little tidbits that I just found that came out of PaxPrime this weekend thanks to Kristen Archer of Torwars.com was this tasty little morsel about the possibility for gambling in Star Wars The Old Republic [...]
well not true since sto has a mini game that lets you gamble energy cred for something else but if it is a mini game then it is fine.
Can anybody be invited to the beta or do you have to be 18+ ?
Now I’m not completely sure, but I think as long as you are signed up for Beta testing on the official SWTOR website you have a shot, regardless of your age.
You have to be over 18 to legally sign the NDA. Sorry.
I stand corrected. But at least the right answer is here now, so thanks.