So I’m watching the new developer movie on combat in Star Wars: The Old Republic courtesy of the Common Sense Gamer. And one of my secret fears about the game has been realized.
First go watch it. Yes, all of it.
Now then, let me ask you a question.
Did you see any Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, Agents, or Troopers wielding melee weapons – say, a sword, or a knife, of a gaffi stick?
Did you see any Jedi or Sith utilizing a blaster carbine or ion blaster?
Me either. Ruh-Roh.
See, this plays into my fear. Star Wars Galaxies was so wide open, so steeped in Star Wars mythos that the fluff exceeded the crunch (the opposite problem of most RPG’s by the way), and the truly schooled in in SW Lore were the only ones that could appreciate some of the decisions made (“Jedi are rare, deal with it.” etc.). And it was, very generally speaking, a failure as a sustainable, profitable MMO.
This, as we say in the research world, is a correlation. But since most people, particularly, it seems, people who write the checks for developing these games, are morons, they often do not realize that correlation does not imply causation. And so my fear is that this time around, we will get a watered down, dumbed down, version of a Star Wars MMO. A game that has none of the sandbox qualities of SW:G that were part of its success and positive aspects. There will be a tendency to assume that SW:G rolled over and died because it was too Star Wars and not enough user-friendly MMO. I fear this because SW:G’s own developers assumed this – otherwise, why roll out that most dreaded of updates, whose name may not be spoken aloud.
So, we are going to get something that will look like Star Wars, but it won’t be Star Wars. There will be no heroic destiny. There will be no roleplaying. There will be a game on rails, characters on rails, advancement on rails, weapon selection on rails. And you will like it.
::waves hands in Jedi-esque manner::
Because they will tell you that you will like it. But me? Unless I get to decide what kind of armor and weapons my Jedi or non-Jedi may be using, then you can probably count me out. I’d prefer an MMO thanks, not Team Fortress 3: Star Wars Edition.
Harbinger Zero 
Twitchgame: Diablo meets Mortal Combat, with some ideas from Hellgate London and Tabula Rasa.
It will be a single-player game with online DRM and monthly payment – good for the corporation.
Nothing real gamers need 😉
Ghanur, I couldn’t have said it any better myself. You are hitting the nail square on the head here.
One of my best game experiences ever was playing KOTOR II as a Jedi completely specced out for using pistols. Man, that was awesome.
Let me tell you, walking into a room, freezing everyone, and shooting them in the head: really low.
Hehe, I’m guessing you were batting for the Dark Side then. (-: Was it Kotor II where that guy wouldn’t let you past no matter what? I killed that guy like five different times and each time the dialogue got funnier and funnier.
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