Each of the eight classes also has its own distinct narrative. “If you start our game as a Jedi knight, play from the start to the finish, then you play as a Sith from the start to the finish, you will not see one repeated bit of content. Not one quest, not one line, nothing,” says Erickson. Nothing at all? “OK, well, you might see different sides of the same conflict, but this is Star Wars – ‘Wars’, you know?”

A major part of this is another of BioWare’s specialities, companion characters. You can have several of these allies, though only one will adventure with you at any one time, and their role is to continually comment on, and presumably try to influence, your behaviour. Zeschuk describes them as “the lens through which you see the world,” and they won’t hesitate to make their feelings known, good or bad, and will even abandon you if you’re constantly doing things they object to.

Unfortunately, the most interesting aspects of the game are the ones least is known about. Confirmed are realm vs realm, player vs player, raiding and space travel. Asking BioWare rewards us with a familiar line. “We are building many many worlds and you can travel between them, but what happens then we’re not talking about,” says Erickson. In-game economy? “We’ll have one.” Housing? “We’re definitely not talking about player housing”. The game may be being developed for 360, but “we’re only talking about PC today”. Best of all, the immortal “we’re not talking about anything to do with space today”.

Through all this runs that first sentence: “This has been pretty much the worst-kept secret in videogaming”. It might be truer to say it still is, such is the confusion about what is a potential ‘reveal’ and what is necessary detail, and it’s brought into sharp focus by a question about the subscription method. “We haven’t defined what we’re doing, so we don’t want to talk about it,” ran the first response.

This was corrected by the next, and more forthright, answer to: “We do know what we’re doing, but we’re not talking about it. That’s the story.” Couldn’t have put it better ourselves.