Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Normally I wake to the soft, cool glow of blue light emitting from the control panel beside me. Or perhaps a gentle rumbling might stir me from my slumber should my ship’s onboard sensors fail to detect a field of micro-meteorites in its path and charge boldly though the center. Personally I think the latter is just my R2 unit’s awful sense of humor, but that’s beside the point.

Story should be as important as combat in a "perfect" Star Wars game.

Today was much different though. The shrill sound of sirens came bleeding through the thin metal walls of my stasis chamber, causing me to smack my forehead against the door with a dull thud. “This had better not be another false alarm”, I remember thinking, as I blearily punched in the code to release the locks on small pod I called my bed of late. My ship is getting old; systems have a habit of failing, and with an R2 unit that’s prone to playing pranks rather than fixing anything as my only companion, it was easy to assume that I’d be searching for a safe place to land for emergency repairs for the third time this month.

Shambling down the narrow corridor on legs that refused to respond to what my brain was telling them, I eventually made my way to the forward control center. I can honestly say that I was not prepared for what was waiting there on the holographic display. Could this be it? The thing I’ve been searching for these past ten years? Have I finally found…

The Perfect Star Wars Game

Over the past 14 years, BioWare has built a solid reputation among gamers and critics alike as one of the preeminent RPG makers of our time. For some, the announcement that Star Wars: The Old Republic was being developed by BioWare was the MMO equivalent of finding the Holy Grail. In spite of being one of the worst kept secrets in the industry over the past few years, it was hard to avoid getting swept up in the surging excitement once the project became official last fall, and with good reason.

Blizzard Entertainment, a company many consider to be masters of real-time strategy, paved the way for the MMO explosion that brought a young, growing industry into the realm of pop culture and beyond. The similarities between the birth of a world obsessed with Warcraft earlier this decade and the hype surrounding The Old Republic are too great to ignore. Both Blizzard and BioWare have been hailed as masters of their respective genres, and perhaps just as importantly, both have created best-selling single player games in the settings and worlds in which their MMOs take place.

Yet doubt still lingers amongst a more mature MMO audience that The Old Republic has the potential to be the dreaded “Next Big Thing.” I’ll admit that it’s hard to avoid a certain amount of skepticism, but a part of me simply won’t let go of the notion that The Old Republic is going to be the first true blockbuster MMO released since WoW. While Blizzard’s rampaging beast of a game could be considered a culmination of the best elements drawn from the first generation of MMOs, BioWare has the same opportunity to look back on the past five years, and could quite possibly usher in a third era for the industry. Unlike Blizzard though, BioWare needs to truly innovate in the MMO space while ultimately remaining true to the monolithic Star Wars IP. A daunting task to be sure, but I think BioWare is up to the challenge.

The Old Republic certainly has the potential for greatness.

To me, it’s more a matter of thinking “How would BioWare approach an MMO project?” rather than trying to imagine Generic MMO X with a Star Wars logo slapped haphazardly on the box. Were it any other studio behind the project I might remain skeptical because, let’s face it, there’s been a ton of crappy Star Wars games made over the years. For example, and I’m sure this will incite all sorts of nerd rage, but to me the grind in Star Wars Galaxies isn’t a very big step forward from the Empire Strikes Back game on the Atari 2600. But I’m not here to talk about the “fail” button some of you might already be reaching for. Instead, I’d like to take a look at what elements would make the perfect Star Wars MMO, and why I believe BioWare can deliver on them.

The Impact of Story

Story has typically taken a back seat to action in MMOs, kept primarily in the realm of lore that helps flesh out a particular setting, only ever inching forward with content updates that ultimately have no direct impact on the static game world already in place. NPCs dole out the same quests no matter how many characters you run through their backyard; most often never bothering to react to any individual trait that may help define your place in the world.

At the same time I couldn’t imagine a BioWare game that doesn’t have a strong narrative as the driving force behind character development, and I suspect that will also be the case in The Old Republic. In fact, the developer has placed great emphasis on back-story at the character level as well as the overall lore for each of its titles, something that features prominently in the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins. That title in particular will be one to watch closely, as BioWare has stated that your entire experience will change depending on where you come from and the choices you make along your journey.