As I said below...none of BioWare's engines can handle the number of connections needed for an MMO. Neither Infiinity or Aurora were built with the database systems in mind that are required to build these types of games.
I think the point is that he really doesn't have any idea what the "engine" for a game really is.
For an MMO the "engine" puts the pixels on the screen, it has some system for taking your 3D models and textures and getting them into the game, it has a database system for keeping track of all of the myriad numbers that make up an MMO and, most importantly, it has the net code that allows 1000's of users to connect simultaneously and play your game. You'll notice that none of those aspects have anything to do with how your game actually plays, that's still up to you to build. So, in this case BioWare decided they'd license the 5 or so years of work that Simutronics has already put into building all of that backend crap so they could focus on creating a fun, compelling, game for people to play. Sounds like a good deal for everyone to me.
Re: Bioware takes the shortcut
As I said below...none of BioWare's engines can handle the number of connections needed for an MMO. Neither Infiinity or Aurora were built with the database systems in mind that are required to build these types of games.
I think the point is that he really doesn't have any idea what the "engine" for a game really is.
For an MMO the "engine" puts the pixels on the screen, it has some system for taking your 3D models and textures and getting them into the game, it has a database system for keeping track of all of the myriad numbers that make up an MMO and, most importantly, it has the net code that allows 1000's of users to connect simultaneously and play your game. You'll notice that none of those aspects have anything to do with how your game actually plays, that's still up to you to build. So, in this case BioWare decided they'd license the 5 or so years of work that Simutronics has already put into building all of that backend crap so they could focus on creating a fun, compelling, game for people to play. Sounds like a good deal for everyone to me.