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CNN Live Today

Look at 'Star Wars Galaxies'

Aired July 02, 2003 - 10:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Something I did not get to for your birthday, but watch this next story. If you think that playing "Star Wars" is just for kids, well, look again. Thanks to the Internet, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are immersing themselves in a 24-7 online world that is based on the movies. You might be surprised to learn that some of your own coworker are among these. In fact, some of them are right here in this very newsroom. In fact, that includes or technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, one of them. We pulled you out of this imaginary world, or allegedly imaginary world.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, I put my lightsaber away for awhile, Daryn.

KAGAN: That's right, so you can take us back in and show us what it's all about.

SIEBERG: Exactly. Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. You know, actually, wait, it was just last week that LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment released "Star Wars Galaxies," a much anticipated online game that allows you go into this immersive world and create a character that's part of the "Star Wars" world.

So the idea behind the game is you start off by creating a character. It's much like many of the massively multiplayer online games out there. You go in and you create your character. You can choose from a number of different races. You can see what you have been choosing from here. Perhaps the most recognizable being a Wookie. What you can see here, people may be familiar with Chewbacca from the films. You can change everything about your character from your eyes to your mouth, your chin, even the freckles on your face, and then you can choose what you want to do with your character. This character here is a brawler.

KAGAN: Can we see what character you picked for you?

SIEBERG: Well, actually, I chose a brawler. But we're going to bring in somebody at the moment who did choose a Wookie. His name is Scott Thomas, and he is our resident Wookie, or I should say resident gamer. He's with CNN.com, and he's in the game right now.

May the force be with us, because there have been some technical problems and some updates going online with the game.

But, Scott, where are you right now in the game?

SCOTT THOMAS, STAR WARS GAME PLAYER: Right now, we're on a planet called Tatooine, planet of Jabba the Hut actually. I have a hunting partner with me, with my character, a Wookie, running around the wilderness, hunting down, trying to gain experience to further myself in the game.

SIEBERG: That's a big part of the game. People might wonder, what's the point? Are there missions you have to accomplish when you're in the game?

THOMAS: Correct. You can do rebel or imperial missions to gain ranks, and which faction you want to be with, be it the Jedi knights or the dark Jedi.

SIEBERG: So you can't play as Luke Skywalker or Hans Solo, but it line up in the way that the game does, with the rebel forces and the imperial forces.

THOMAS: Correct. Correct. The timeframe is after the Death Star has been destroyed, and this is where you jump into the storyline.

SIEBERG: OK, and you mentioned that you're a Wookie. Now you can also learn a bunch of different skills, right, and different weapons in the game?

THOMAS: Correct, you can learn different languages. You can -- there's hybrid profession, such as -- there's cooking or architecture. It really gets very wide in the different things that you're able to do.

SIEBERG: And a big part of the game, Scott, a lot of online games, is the ability to chat and interact with all of the other characters that are out there, right. I mean, that's a big part of the game.

THOMAS: Correct. There's actual ways to search for people on your planet, anyone looking for a group to interact.

SIEBERG: Or to dance with, as we're seeing right here.

THOMAS: Yes, you can...

SIEBERG: Get your groove on in the little Cantina there if you feel like it.

So the end result, though, is you can play this game for countless hours, right. It's not necessarily like there's an end to this game.

THOMAS: No, you can further yourself. If you wanted to, say, be better at a marksman than say hand to hand, you can start all over, instead of creating a new character. So it's really one character kind of game.

SIEBERG: All right, Scott Thomas, I'll let you get back to the game I'm playing there.

And, Daryn, it does costs about $50. You can get also a collectors edition for $80.

And we should point out that LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment have been a little low key with this release, partly because Electronic Arts released "The Sims Online," you might remember, and they had some disappointing subscription numbers, so they're really being a little bit cautious with this release. They're hoping to bring in, obviously, the hardcore "Star Wars" fans. They do say they've had about a half-million subscription -- registered users so far. So a lot of people out there using their lightsaber.

KAGAN: It sounds like it. So are you actually competing against yourself, just to see how many points you can get?

SIEBERG: That's a big part of it, yes. It's really to develop your own skills. You can also join with a group if you want to. You're a little more successful, say, at beating a larger character if you're part of a group. But you can just go off alone and try and develop your character as best you can. There's no sort of measure that have you to beat or a high score for that matter. It's more of sort of the immersion in the game and being part of this world. So if you like the Star Wars universe, I think it may be something you want to check out, yes.

KAGAN: I know you do, and I know you play a lot of these games. How would you rate or rank this with some of the other online games so far?

THOMAS: Well, you know, they spent a long time developing the graphics and the interactivity in this game, and it ranks up there pretty high. You know, "Everquest" being sort of the largest online game out there right now, also from Sony Online Entertainment, it is sort of the pinnacle of the online games. But this one certainly measures up in a lot of ways, the graphics and so on. They're running into some technical difficulties, growing pains, LucasArts is, but that's to be expected, because the game was just released last week. So I'm sure they'll work those out as time goes by, at least the gamers hope so.

KAGAN: Absolutely. OK, we'll let you go, and get back into that worlds, but thanks for stepping out for a couple of minutes to visit us in our.

SIEBERG: Thank you.

Daniel Sieberg, thanks for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired July 2, 2003 - 10:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Something I did not get to for your birthday, but watch this next story. If you think that playing "Star Wars" is just for kids, well, look again. Thanks to the Internet, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are immersing themselves in a 24-7 online world that is based on the movies. You might be surprised to learn that some of your own coworker are among these. In fact, some of them are right here in this very newsroom. In fact, that includes or technology correspondent, Daniel Sieberg, one of them. We pulled you out of this imaginary world, or allegedly imaginary world.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, I put my lightsaber away for awhile, Daryn.

KAGAN: That's right, so you can take us back in and show us what it's all about.

SIEBERG: Exactly. Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. You know, actually, wait, it was just last week that LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment released "Star Wars Galaxies," a much anticipated online game that allows you go into this immersive world and create a character that's part of the "Star Wars" world.

So the idea behind the game is you start off by creating a character. It's much like many of the massively multiplayer online games out there. You go in and you create your character. You can choose from a number of different races. You can see what you have been choosing from here. Perhaps the most recognizable being a Wookie. What you can see here, people may be familiar with Chewbacca from the films. You can change everything about your character from your eyes to your mouth, your chin, even the freckles on your face, and then you can choose what you want to do with your character. This character here is a brawler.

KAGAN: Can we see what character you picked for you?

SIEBERG: Well, actually, I chose a brawler. But we're going to bring in somebody at the moment who did choose a Wookie. His name is Scott Thomas, and he is our resident Wookie, or I should say resident gamer. He's with CNN.com, and he's in the game right now.

May the force be with us, because there have been some technical problems and some updates going online with the game.

But, Scott, where are you right now in the game?

SCOTT THOMAS, STAR WARS GAME PLAYER: Right now, we're on a planet called Tatooine, planet of Jabba the Hut actually. I have a hunting partner with me, with my character, a Wookie, running around the wilderness, hunting down, trying to gain experience to further myself in the game.

SIEBERG: That's a big part of the game. People might wonder, what's the point? Are there missions you have to accomplish when you're in the game?

THOMAS: Correct. You can do rebel or imperial missions to gain ranks, and which faction you want to be with, be it the Jedi knights or the dark Jedi.

SIEBERG: So you can't play as Luke Skywalker or Hans Solo, but it line up in the way that the game does, with the rebel forces and the imperial forces.

THOMAS: Correct. Correct. The timeframe is after the Death Star has been destroyed, and this is where you jump into the storyline.

SIEBERG: OK, and you mentioned that you're a Wookie. Now you can also learn a bunch of different skills, right, and different weapons in the game?

THOMAS: Correct, you can learn different languages. You can -- there's hybrid profession, such as -- there's cooking or architecture. It really gets very wide in the different things that you're able to do.

SIEBERG: And a big part of the game, Scott, a lot of online games, is the ability to chat and interact with all of the other characters that are out there, right. I mean, that's a big part of the game.

THOMAS: Correct. There's actual ways to search for people on your planet, anyone looking for a group to interact.

SIEBERG: Or to dance with, as we're seeing right here.

THOMAS: Yes, you can...

SIEBERG: Get your groove on in the little Cantina there if you feel like it.

So the end result, though, is you can play this game for countless hours, right. It's not necessarily like there's an end to this game.

THOMAS: No, you can further yourself. If you wanted to, say, be better at a marksman than say hand to hand, you can start all over, instead of creating a new character. So it's really one character kind of game.

SIEBERG: All right, Scott Thomas, I'll let you get back to the game I'm playing there.

And, Daryn, it does costs about $50. You can get also a collectors edition for $80.

And we should point out that LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment have been a little low key with this release, partly because Electronic Arts released "The Sims Online," you might remember, and they had some disappointing subscription numbers, so they're really being a little bit cautious with this release. They're hoping to bring in, obviously, the hardcore "Star Wars" fans. They do say they've had about a half-million subscription -- registered users so far. So a lot of people out there using their lightsaber.

KAGAN: It sounds like it. So are you actually competing against yourself, just to see how many points you can get?

SIEBERG: That's a big part of it, yes. It's really to develop your own skills. You can also join with a group if you want to. You're a little more successful, say, at beating a larger character if you're part of a group. But you can just go off alone and try and develop your character as best you can. There's no sort of measure that have you to beat or a high score for that matter. It's more of sort of the immersion in the game and being part of this world. So if you like the Star Wars universe, I think it may be something you want to check out, yes.

KAGAN: I know you do, and I know you play a lot of these games. How would you rate or rank this with some of the other online games so far?

THOMAS: Well, you know, they spent a long time developing the graphics and the interactivity in this game, and it ranks up there pretty high. You know, "Everquest" being sort of the largest online game out there right now, also from Sony Online Entertainment, it is sort of the pinnacle of the online games. But this one certainly measures up in a lot of ways, the graphics and so on. They're running into some technical difficulties, growing pains, LucasArts is, but that's to be expected, because the game was just released last week. So I'm sure they'll work those out as time goes by, at least the gamers hope so.

KAGAN: Absolutely. OK, we'll let you go, and get back into that worlds, but thanks for stepping out for a couple of minutes to visit us in our.

SIEBERG: Thank you.

Daniel Sieberg, thanks for that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com