Computer Gaming World: A New Hope.

BioWare has an amazing track record as role-playing masterminds, but their newest project, massively multiplayer online role-player Star Wars: The Old Republic, faces a huge challenge: making players feel at home in such a beloved universe while differentiating the game from the tough MMO competition. To find out how they'll tackle this dilemma, we talked with company founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, Principal Lead Writer Daniel Erickson, and Studio Creative Director James Ohlen.

EGM: The numerous MMO fans around the office wonder how the various successes and failures of Star Wars: Galaxies will inform The Old Republic.

Dr. Greg Zeschuk: That's a tricky one. It's really about pulling back to Star Wars in general. What is it about, being the heroes and the villains in the universe? The most exciting people, the ones that people would talk about, in a fictional sense. I think where we sit with The Old Republic, that's really why we put the story stuff in; it's a pretty huge divergence from what Galaxies and most other MMOs have done. …