Star Wars: The Old Republic Gameplay Footage

Bioware & LucasArts say they're making another Star Wars MMO...actually the way they talk, you'd think they were making the first Star Wars MMO. They like to ignore SWG.

After watching through the new gameplay demo footage for The Old Republic Online, I'm convinced they're not interested in making an MMO, because it *looks* like they're making a single player game with a multiplayer component--a console game, and an area where Bioware excels. But it doesn't look like an MMO.

The current Bioware project is Knights of the Old Republic III, a Massively Singleplayer Online RPG. Yes, they show off some of the multiplayer capabilities in their videos, but it looks more like grouping up in a console game than anything else, the only change being you tag-team the responses to NPC's. You also get the charm of listening to inane NPC chitchat if you want to get the story, instead of being able to skim that information and get on with your game.

Well, as the Emperor says in Star Wars Episode II Bioware, there is no try. There's do and there's ****ing up royal. And you're ****ing up royal. Ya, that's straight from the Emperor, guys, so stop with the ****ing up royal and DO make a good Star Wars MMO, this is looking cool and all, but it's not an MMO.

They take a number of keys from single player games (have I mentioned that this is pretty much a single player game with a multiplayer component? I'm pretty sure I have) such as allowing your character to take cover in marked areas of the environment, and nicely put together cutscenes for dialogue-heavy portions of the game.

They also include epic missions (called Flashpoints). These are longer missions that provide more story than your typical mission, multiple bosses and at least one elite boss.

Altogether the gameplay looks fun, the content immersive, the combat fast and exciting, and the environment amazing. But it doesn't have the overall feel of a Massively Multiplayer game. Bioware seems to have missed the boat on this one so far. I'm also concerned about the content levels. I know from experience in many MMO's that eventually paid content writers run out of material, or the game designers run out of time to implement new storyline content, and then the story that was once so fun and immersive becomes cheap and repetitive. Or worse, they stop making story content altogether. The makers of The Old Republic Online seem committed to making this a very storyline-driven game (read: single player experience) and this doesn't bode well for a game when MMO players traditionally try to "win" in some way--something that's not technically possible in an MMO. The written content is going to run out sooner than the developers are expecting, and they won't have anywhere to fall back.

Many modern MMO's are moving to a player-written content system, a concept which has yet to be done in a massive way. Systems like Star Wars Galaxies Storyteller content, or City of Heroes' Architect missions are a good start, but I would like to see those types of player content systems expanded to allow for even more open player content design, on par with developer-created content. If Bioware institutes an excellent player-created content system, they may be able to produce main storyline content at a rate that will satisfy their playerbase while giving players yet another system with which to play, again satiating their need for fresh content from the dev team. I still have my doubts, because I've never seen an MMO successfully institute an advanced storyline that includes active missions and is able to continue being developed faster than players can complete the content.

On that note, I'll continue to keep an eye on Star Wars: The Old Republic, and keep you apprised of any major developments.