‘Star Wars’ Online Game is 4-Millennium Rewind
From MSNBC.com:
LOS ANGELES – “Star Wars” is hyperspeeding to an even longer time ago. The next chapter in George Lucas’ ever-expanding franchise will be “Star Wars: The Old Republic,” a massively multiplayer online game set thousands of years before Darth Vader was born. The game is being developed by BioWare, the Electronic Arts-owned studio responsible 
for the first “Knights of the Old Republic” role-playing game in 2003. “People have asked us why we’re not making ‘Knights of the Old Republic III,’” said BioWare senior content producer Dallas Dickinson about the much-rumored-about game. “Our response is that we’re actually making ‘Knights of the Old Republic III’ through ‘Knights of the Old Republic X’ — and we’re releasing them all at once.”
In the game, players can customize their own characters, align with the Jedi Order or Sith Lords and participate in adventures with other players on virtual worlds, such as Korriban and Tython. “The Old Republic” developers said they’re focusing on storytelling and promise that Cold War-type events in the game would lay the groundwork for future lore. “In an MMO, you usually do what you’re told, whether it’s go kill 10 dudes or find this artifact or whatever,” said BioWare creative director James Ohlen. “You never get to make meaningful choices that are tough to make. That’s something we’re going to have in our game because ‘Star Wars’ is all about the struggle between good and evil, light and dark.” The game will feature multiple companion characters — think: Wookie sidekick Chewbacca and beeping droid R2-D2 from the films — that players can interact with during their adventures. Ohlen said the companion characters can be romanced, befriended or offended and will have a significant affect on the way players progress throughout the game…