The Greatest Shame of All

BioWare and game novelization is the topic of a new "The Greatest Shame of All" editorial on The Escapist.
Being a gamer, my Star Wars consumption soon branched out into games as well. Unfortunately, while one can still enjoy a bad book, the same can't necessarily be said for a videogame. For the most part, licensed Star Wars games had little to offer me, the rabid Jedi fanboy, aside from a few interesting connections with the films. Even these were hard to find, as the games tended towards the "awful" side of the gameplay spectrum - that is, until BioWare came along. Unexpectedly and brilliantly, the Edmonton-based developer created a whole new universe within George Lucas' well established mythology: Knights of the Old Republic.

Without the pressure of having to write a story based on the movies, BioWare was able to create something both unique and familiar. A big part of this was the work of lead writer Drew Karpyshyn, who crafted a story set thousands of years before the events of Luke, Han and Chewbacca. This new saga depicted a time when the Sith were just a plentiful as the Jedi, and introduced a number of new characters that would shape the universe to come. Eventually the process came full circle after Karpyshyn wrote a novel set during the same time period. This book, which takes place prior to the events of Knights of the Old Republic, expanded upon the mysterious character of Darth Bane. However, despite the success that KOTOR saw across both mediums, Karpyshyn isn't convinced that games make the best book material.