Gambling in SWTOR? You Decide.
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 MMO. Courtesy of an interview that Video Nvidia did with Cory Butler. At about 3 minutes in we get this question and very interesting answer from Cory,
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
Now I don’t know about you but that sounds to me like it is possible that they have some feature already in progress. Betting on Huttball? Maybe some gambling on Pazaak? I am not sure what this eludes to or what game mechanic it might be tied to but I thought it was interesting none the same. Gambling of some form in SWTOR is something I have always thought would be fun and if done right could be very addictive.
I know for a fact that if the mechanic was in game in some form I would mess around with it, and probably enjoy it a lot. Nar Shadda seems obviously the perfect place for such a feature. Being described by a ton of the developers as “the Vegas of TOR” I guess it shouldn’t come as such a surprise that they might be considering it after all. I guess I haven’t thought much about it’s inclusion in the game because of the teen rating they are striving to keep.
I am now hopeful however that this mechanic will make it in the game, hopefully at ship if not maybe soon thereafter.
What do you think is gambling in TOR something you would like to see?
7 Responses to “Gambling in SWTOR? You Decide.”
Not hating in the devs, but I think it would be foolish not to, makes too much sense. I’m sure they already have it implemented.
I thought that it was specifically stated a while ago that pazaak would not make launch, but it was something they hoped to add later.
I agree with Drakai88, it is just too much a part of KOTOR to not have it in as soon as possible. And I can’t wait to eventually have group pazaak nights! 🙂
I imagine they will have single-player slot machine type things sooner, but I can’t begin to describe how much I’m hoping for 2 player pazaak with collectible decks.
@draki88 the only thing I can think of that might hold them back would be the rating issue, I am no professional on the subject so I am not sure what line they have to walk regarding this though.
I would think that Nar shadda would make the perfect setting for it and unless they cant I would be amazed if they don’t. I have seen so many people around the net that say they would love this sort of feature.
@Aldric collectible decks for pazaak seems like it could be a money goldmine with this game, I so hope they are going to do this. I would love to get loot drops in game for packs of cards that would be awesome and I would even do micro transactions for them too as long as they weren’t ridiculous in price. I love card games and collectible decks in my MMO’s!
Actually if the gambling is tied to in game currency it may be illegal in some countries under the same laws regulating Online Casinos. In Game currency can easily become real world currency via Gold Farmers. So, in effect, it would be possible to be a professional gambler in a MMO and produce real wealth from it. The opposite is also true. This also touches on rating issues, as this may bump it to a Mature only rating. Unless they find some other sort of reward that cannot equate to real world material reward, this may be a no starter.
@Galen thank you for that insight into this issue I did not know that it was illegal in some countries tbh.
We need gambling for collectible Pazaak cards! 🙂
@Galen @swtorcrafter This is the same reason why we didn’t see slot machines in the last couple Pokemon games, you just can’t depict gambling in games in certian countries anymore if you want anything under a “M” rating.
Well, they managed to put Dabo in Star Trek Online, and I don’t recall ever hearing of the original KOTOR games being illegal anywhere, so hopefully Bioware won’t have too much of an issue…