Editorial RPGDot readers stunned by KotOR

[Spazmo]

Tags: BioWare; Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

<a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a>'s readers have--in a completely inexplicable turn of events--given <a href=http://www.swkotor.com>Knights of the Old Republic</a> the prize for Biggest RPG Surprise of 2003. The runners up were <a href=http://www.piranha-bytes.com>Gothic II</a> and <a href=http://www.greyhawkgame.com>Temple of Elemental Evil</a>.
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<blockquote>The winner: Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic
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Why would a RPG using one of the world's best-known licenses and made by one of the most recognised RPG developers catch players by surprise? Perhaps both these brands are big factors. There have been numerous average (or even poor) Star Wars games with only a few classics and licensed games are often disappointing. Despite Bioware's successes the single-player campaign for Neverwinter Nights was dull. Many players were uncomfortable with the Xbox version taking precedence -- and the simplifications this might entail. Whatever the reasons, KotOR surpassed many players' expectations and obviously caught them by surprise.</blockquote>
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Try as I might, I really just don't get this one. Why on Earth would anyone be surprised that a BioWare CRPG wouldn't be a huge hit? Did people go buy KotOR, install it and go "Hey, I thought this was going to be crap!" I am utterly bewildered by this award. Just goes to show, RPGDot, stop asking your readers what they think.

 

[taks]

i have to wonder out loud what was so surprising about toee that it would make this list? combat was everything troika said it would be and the game in general had an added 250 "features" (read: bugs) to boot. what's so surprising about that coming from troika?

mark

 

[Voss]

Honestly, their limited selections (going by the top 10 the list in every one of these things)
makes these selections completely meaningless.
Theres so few games (and not all of them are even RPGs)

I think on a lot of them, the readers just went- "Oh, heard of this game, I'll pick it"

 

[Spazmo]

Well, yeah. None of the games that won were real suprises. I just think it's a silly category.

 

[Volourn]

Yeha, I ahve to agree. The only thing that could warrant this is that the people picking this award either don't care for SW or think SW games sucks since RPGDot is a big BIo supporter so it cna't be their surprised they like another BIO game? Hmm..

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

It's kinda like nominating SW:KoTOR for best SW game Bioware ever made

 

[Volourn]

... Ha.

 

[Anonymous]

RPGDot leans towards BioWare sorta and Gothic alot and Morrowind a good deal, I noticed that. Then again, it's not too hard to notice when they have a site dedicated to Morrowind community news daily and they've had stuff for Gothic labeling it RPGDot's over-all favorite RPG.

 

[taks]

yeah, i suppose that polls such as this are really nothing more than "what's your favorite game of the year" in disguise with a few minor variations.

mark

 

[unic]

I'm too lazy to check, but seem to recall somewhat more variation (though still not much) last year.

Is RpgCodex going to do any kind of favourite RPGs of 2003? (And looking back at 2002, Morrowind made three out of four of the RpgCodex lists; interesting as negative comments towards it aren't that uncommon here.)

 

[Anonymous]

I dunno, considering there was only like 3 RPGs last year.

 

[Dhruin]

We included every game that was in our database with an initial english-language release of 2003. So which games do you think we missed that makes the selection "limited"?

I'm sure most people give ad-hoc answers for online polls, so the meaning of life isn't hidden in there somewhere - it's just a bit of fun. That said, my reading of St Proverbius' kotor review suggests the game was at least a tiny little bit better than he initially expected. It is too much to imagine some of our readers found the game a little better than their expectations, for whatever reason?

Finally, a Bioware bias? I'm sure many of our readers like Bioware games but I'd be interested to hear how the site has a Bioware bias.

 

[Killzig]

As an aside---> Ausir, how come Dhruin doesn't have a special av/title? You even gave the QBasic jock one after 1 post. Seems kind of silly.

And Dhruin, it wasn't your selection that was limited it was this year's RPG market that was limited. Too many craptastic titles, I guess the only stunner was that KOTOR didn't make you retch on instinct.

 

[Trash]

Gotta love polls...........

Did people go buy KotOR, install it and go "Hey, I thought this was going to be crap

Erh, quite a few people around here?

Just goes to show, RPGDot, stop asking your readers what they think.

That's the right attitude! Fuck the fanbase!





[/quote]

 

[Sol Invictus]

KOTOR was definitely a surprise for me. I was half expecting a Final Fantasy clone meets NWN's crappy tilebased engine. Though, beyond that, I don't think there were too many RPGs last year which were very good at all. Not to mention the fact that so few of them were released.

 

[Spazmo]

That said, my reading of St Proverbius' kotor review suggests the game was at least a tiny little bit better than he initially expected. It is too much to imagine some of our readers found the game a little better than their expectations, for whatever reason?

Well, that's different because after NWN, Saint was expecting KOTOR to be, well, NWN in space with wookies. Most people, however, loved NWN and all of BioWare's games and thus I don't see why they would be surprised by liking KOTOR.

The thing is that when I think of a Biggest Surprise category, I would expect something like, say, the original Geneforge to win. A totally original game comes right out of left field from a no-name developer/publisher (hey, I love you, Mr. Vogel, but you're not as big--bloated? Nah.--as BioWare) and knocks us all off our feet. When a HUGE developer like BioWare (in terms of size, resources and popularity) announces a freakin' Star Wars game, well, I don't see why anyone would be surprised by liking it if they're BioWare fans.

 

[Volourn]

Amen, Spazmo, amen.

 

[Dhruin]

I don't think the site has any Bioware bias but as a broad-based RPG portal, yes, I'm sure many of our readers are going to be running with the popular crowd. It's inevitable that some of our awards will be a bit predictable. On kotor though, I think you might be surprised how many players saw through the marketing spin and understood that this was a console job first and foremost.

Geneforge 2 deserves the credit but it's never going to get it (in this type of article). Not enough readers would have played it and for those that did - there's no surprise. We played the original Geneforge and knew exactly what to expect. I will suggest an indie category, however. I'm not sure if it will get enough support but games like Geneforge do deserve the coverage.

 

[Greenskin13]

See, this is why I'm opposed to democracy. People are idiots, and so we should rule them. Like Dhruin said, the broad majority of RPG players are the unwashed masses who buys whatever IGN or Gamespy tells them to buy. They aren't going to go for indies, they're going to buy games made by the large companies that have name-recognition. Maybe 5 years ago, if we could get the mainstream RPGers to play some indie classics, they'd be enlightned. But now, I think it's too late to save them. They're too far brainwashed with their graphics, action, and 'teh hawt chix' to see an indie gem even if they played it.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I'm sure most people give ad-hoc answers for online polls, so the meaning of life isn't hidden in there somewhere - it's just a bit of fun. That said, my reading of St Proverbius' kotor review suggests the game was at least a tiny little bit better than he initially expected. It is too much to imagine some of our readers found the game a little better than their expectations, for whatever reason?

Yup, I agree. It surprised me because they've actually started making stabs at good and evil as well as a few noncombat routes through their games.

 

[Dan]

This surprises me as well.
I don't think RPGDot has any bias, it's actually one the better RPG sites out there. (Outside the Codex, that is).

But this pick was made by the readers.
I would excpect most of them to love Biowere and think it's the best RPG company out there. So if most of the people that read RPG news on the internet are clueless idiots, why should they be surprised by KoTOR?

 

[Voss]

I figured out:
most internet users are sheep.
Sheep have a tendency to be surprised by the sun coming up.
Something won a poll; the sheep are taken by surprise.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

Nothing surprises me anymore after years of surfing the web.