You know, if I knew absolutely nothing about SW:TOR, and I read/heard this presentation, I’d be absolutely pumped for whatever MMO Damion Schubert is talking about. Converting casuals into hardcore players, retaining those hardcore players, understanding the importance of such players to an MMO. Man is talking my language.
This is why hardcores are great for MMOs, since they’ll settle down and be loyal longer. Hardcore players not only help subsidize the game but do a wonderful job evangelizing it as well.
Guy really gets it. Sign me up!
Problem is I do know something about SW:TOR. I’m well aware of its 4th pillar. We all know it’s going to (try to) be WoW with lightsabers and voice acting minus that silly massive multiplayer stuff.
So wtf is Damion talking about here? Does Bioware have some unannounced MMO project? Is Damion already working on it? Has he already ‘burned out’ on SW:TOR?
I’m trying to finish a product, Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I am not going to talk about today. This is more of a weary man, sort of stream-of-consciousness design theory talk.
Man sure sounds burned out, right?
As a developer who’s trying to urge players down the path toward a hardcore lifestyle in his game
What mystery game is he talking about!?
Hardcore Casual 
Mass Effect MMO please. Please? Thank you.
Genius title.
I thought of the title first, and then had to come up with something to justify using it. I also wanted to link to the article, without just posting ‘hey interesting read’. Good thing snark never fails me!
Hi, I’m Damion Schubert! You might remember me from such MMO titles as, Ultima Online II, Shadownbane, and The Sims Online!
I think he should open with that when he speaks.
Damnion is a very smart guy, gives great talks, and is fun to listen to, even if his “what have you done lately” MMO cred is not all it could be. And he seems to have plenty of “here was a great idea that was totally crushed out of fear of the different” stories.
So I am happy he is on the SWTOR team, but I don’t expect him to be the savior of that team. He is the lead designer of just one aspect of the game, and he has to make it fit with the overall concept and vision not of his making.
You know, looking at his full MMO history… wtf IS he doing at Bioware?
Or is it like the Wolfpack guys going from Shadowbane to Wizard101…
Seems like you missed the point of the linked article in searching for content to support your cute title.
It’s funny because you even quoted it in your post: “This is more of a…design theory talk.”
So you don’t think Damion, at some point, would perhaps apply the design theories he talks about to… the design of the games he works on? Maybe?
Not unless he builds his own house around it. Working for the man means doing what the man says and the is not hardcore.
A designer that likes hardcore play style is pretty common, yet we never see good hardcore games because hardcore is a minority target audience and dev teams are funded by groups that aim for a higher target audience which is why hardcore titles come from indy groups.
I read is as “we want to turn casual players (people who gave us $50 for a box) into hardcore players (people who will give us $15 a month for years, and $300 to pre-order a CE of our next game)”. I suppose there was some game design theory stuff in there but it didn’t feel prominent.
“Hardcore players aren’t always helpful in reaching out to casuals, he said. Sometimes they grow too cliquish and elitist, pushing away the players whom developers are hoping to rope in.”
*cough*
Incidentally, it is also ironic about how Schubert talks about the goal being to transition everyone to being hardcore, while recognizing that that outcome leads people to “[…] settle down in one or two ‘lifestyle’ titles instead of spreading their interests across a broad range.” In other words, the more successful his methodology, the less successful other games become, e.g. WoW (or whatever) crowding out developers, Wal-Mart-style.
This speech really renewed my interest in SWTOR. Maybe they will make the end game decent afterall? I’d have no problem with them copying WoW’s TBC endgame.