We’re back again this week with a few new files from the associated FileFront sites.

This regular feature here on Gaming Today is a little self love for our site. A moment to reflect on the excellent files and other content hosted by our affiliates and a great opportunity to point out files that might interest the readers of Gaming Today who may not be aware of the other content available within in the FileFront family.

The files listed in this feature are submitted regularly by the webmasters of the various websites under the FileFront banner and then we take the time to look over the file and create a nice summary for you.

We have two RTS oriented offerings as well as an interesting expansion to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion that come highly recommended.

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I think I’ve finally figured out what it is about most Massively Multiplayer Online games that irks me so. The lack of evolution – true player impact and evolution. What brings this topic up you ask? Well reader let me show you.

Not to single it out but last year Star Wars Galaxies brought the Civil War back to the game in a big way – with a massive Rebellion vs. Empire fight to the death on a small rather insignificant planet whose architecture is reminiscent on the Naboo capital of Theed. The concept is simple – the Empire and the Rebellion engage in far far away’s version of urban warfighting. Rebel terrorists face off against the fine forces of the Galactic military and the civilians and residents of the galactic burg will be the losers.

One of the questions I asked when I discussed this event a year ago with the lead producer on the title at E3 after my eyes lit up with possibility was – Is the outcome predetermined? The answer – yes. The Rebellion will lose no matter what and the city will be destroyed. Well my next statement wasn’t nearly as nice but I won’t repeat it here. Now I’m someone who has a great idea of the amount of work needed to maintain these static game worlds, and sure the concept of diverging servers – some where the Rebellion wins, some where the Empire wins would create a rift in the game and present a huge technical and manpower issue for SOE to maintain but damn it why even bother to have events like this is there is no chance of altering the outcome? Rebel players – face it you will throw your lives into the pyre of galactic civil war for no net gain. Your death will have no impact on the world and while the event may offer unique armor or skills for participants I just find it frustrating.

Not to pick on Star Wars alone, the most popular MMO game in the world right now – World of Warcraft suffers from the same issue – the Opening of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and the most recent Scourge Invasion smack of the same logic. No matter when each server opened the gates or how many people acted to stop the invasion there is no long term difference. This is a world event that already has a predetermined outcome. Players are insignificant. I know, as a player who returned to the game after the gates opened, it had absolutely no impact on my play. I couldn’t participate in the actual battle (just as my mid level character really couldn’t play in the Scourge Invasion endgame raid) and how the battle on my server went made no difference on anything because the status quo still exists just like it did before the events began.

Following on with the results of the Star Wars battle – the city was abandoned, and players will not be rebuilding it. GMs and plots will maybe eventually lead to its resurrection. The rallying cry of “Remember those who fought at Restuss!” will be there to motivate but has no bite. The people of the world will have no rallying post-9/11 effort to rebuild their lost homes. They will simply move on. Now I don’t know what SOE had in store for the post Restuss event – this was meant to reintroduce the Galactic Civil War into a game that had become mostly about commerce and the standard MMO level grind – it’s just too bad the tiger has no teeth. It’s too bad no one will mourn the loss even a year after the destruction of Restuss.

This my friends is the problem with MMORPGs. The shared world, the illusionary freedom of choice. You will never matter… you will never be the hero of the Scourge invasion or whatever event transpires in your game of choice. No statues to your sacrifice will ever be erected and no value associated with the hard fought battles or great loss. You will never ‘own’ the results of the acts. You just get some trinkets and maybe a personal memory of being part of the battle if you’re lucky. Unless you consider what Guild Wars is promising with GW2 and the Hall of Monuments.

Recently Sparter, a virtual currency commodity broker for MMORPG games, entered the market with their Gamer2Gamer website services. There has been some debate regarding what makes this startup any different from the IGE’s and gold farming operations that are proliferating in the virtual game worlds many of us spend hours enjoying. Sparter’s stated aim is to make the RTE market safer for gamers by reducing fraud and working with developers to let gamers who want to spend real money for virtual capitol leverage a rating and protection system to conduct their business.

Before our interview with the owners of Sparter at E3 this year I had an opportunity to interview Dan Kelly and Boris Putanec on GameOn!. Gaming Today readers commenting on our E3 piece indicated they didn’t buy the load of goods Sparter was selling for the MMO industry with their gamer-to-gamer initiative so I thought it might be interesting to dig up the original interview and publish it here for folks to read.

Going into the interview, as I state at one point, I was ready to attack the concept. I’d read the information, I’d done the research, but I was not convinced that Sparter was looking out for gamers the way the site claimed so I took the opportunity to ask Dan and Boris about the company and its goals. Here is a transcript of the podcast interview in its entirety.. and embarrassingly at points.. unedited. (it looks funny to read a transcript of what you say.)

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The Star Wars Galaxies Dev Diary by Thomas “Hanse” Eidson on Station .com has a fourth article up in his designer diary series. The piece is an in depth look into the way beast mastery works. Eidson is a system designer for Star Wars Galaxies and is chiefly responsible for designing the new beast mastery system from scratch.

When the beast mastery system was first discussed, we simply called it a new pet system. Our goal was to allow a player the ability to control one creature at a time in the game. We wanted the pet to grow, eat, fight, learn, and have a personality. The range of pets available would be large and diverse. A system of discovery would need to be implemented so that the beasts would be craftable. Also, these pets would have special abilities and attributes.

Eidson describes in detail the process of bringing this system to life for Star Wars Galaxies players. Give it a read.

Xbox News is tipping off gamers that the latest title in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series may be out for Christmas… or at least 2008. The US Official Xbox Magazine suggests the BioWare title KOTOR 3, not the MMO, may be available as soon as Christmas. However, there is no confirmation from BioWare on the game itself or what platforms it’s being released on.  I guess we’ll all just have to wait for Microsoft’s conference at E3 and hope for more details then.

Daniel gave you news and trailers on Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga last week. Now we have some lovely screen shots for you, and they are pretty hilarious, especially the one with The Hutt and Leia. Love the golden bikini they have on her. Lucas Arts and TT Games have done a great job from what we’ve seen so far, and hopefully when it hits shelves this Fall it won’t disappoint.

Portable Star Wars? There can’t be anything bad about that! Star Wars: Battlefront is the best-selling Star Wars game ever. Now, LucasArts is bringing the next chapter exclusively to the PSP with Star Wars Battlefront: Renegade Squadron.

Basically, players join a renegade squadron under the command of Han Solo. They then carry out secret missions against the Empire in an all-new storyline. Players will also be able to customize their characters, personalize their loadout, and even choose what abilities they will have. However, that isn’t the coolest thing, in my opinion. The new multiplayer is. The game supports 16 players via internet, or 8 players via the PSP’s wireless connection.

If all this interests you, how about a peek at the trailer? Here it is for your viewing pleasure.

With all the hoopla surrounding Star Wars’ 30th birthday, and the new game from Lucas Arts on the way, I wanted to share this article with you from 1UP. They have rated every single Star Wars game created in the last 25-years in want or don’t want fashion. Starting with the arcade versions all the way up to the latest incarnations, they have broken the games into console, hand held, arcade, and PC groupings. I honestly have to agree with the majority of the rankings they provide, especially Star Wars: Monopoly for the PC. What where they smoking when they came up with THAT idea?

Star Wars turns 30 today, and I have a confession to make: I am a HUGE Star Wars nerd. Not in the extent as say a Trekkie or a Xena-file, but at one time in my life I came pretty close. Yes, I wore my hair in cinnamon bun braids to elementary school, and when I got older I even dressed in the metal bikini for Halloween. No you can not see pictures, I don’t want to get Ron excited. To commemorate this great movie, I wanted to share some fun fan art with you and talk a bit about the new game from Lucas Arts – Star Wars: The Force Unleashed- which will be coming to next-gen consoles sometime in the near future.

The game is set during the era between Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. You play as Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, and aid him in his quest to destroy the Jedi. Read the full article »

LucasArts and TT Games have announced today, on the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars no less, they are currently working on LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga for all major consoles as well as the Nintendo DS.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga will bring both previous LEGO Star Wars game and put them onto one disc. The game will take full advantage of next-gen systems, delivering next-gen graphics on the Xbox 360 & PS3 as well as offering Wii specific controls for Nintendo’s console. The DS version of LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga will be done completely from the ground up and will also take advantage of the DS specific controls.

Another reason why you should probably get this version is the promise of online play on both the Xbox 360 & PS3. So you can finally journey forth and rid the galaxy of the evil Galactic Empire with your friend in Vietnam, where they especially hate The Galactic Empire.

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