Heres One to Keep an Eye On: Star Wars TOR

Here is one I am keeping a close eye on: Star Wars: The Old Republic. Back around 2006 there were rumors in the Star Wars Galaxies community that Bioware was initiating a takeover. Instead, Bioware and LucasArts have come together to form a new MMORPG, TOR. This MMO will feature everything a MMO should have up to this date, but with more story, purpose and meaning to the game. There is no release date yet for TOR, nor is there a date Beta will launch, but I will do my best to get in on it.


This is not a SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) game so I expect a different customer service experience and a different gameplay experience than what I got in Galaxies. Can any Bioware game fans confirm that? I'm not saying Bioware is horrible- I don't know enough about them to make an accurate statement as to how TOR will be. If its any consellation prize- I have played KOTOR and I enjoyed it.


Star Wars Galaxies was launched in 2003 as the next generation MMORPG. The game was fun but lacked serious polish and Star Wars feel to the game. All that was really needed was a quick polish, an addition of game items as necessary, and perhaps some quests/missions that actually meant something in the Star Wars universe. For the longest time, SOE refused to initiate any Role Play content and instead wanted the players to create their own- so they hired a guy by the name of Pex to run events and players could go to an event dealer in hotels to get necessary things for their event (for example, a token that spawned Storm Troopers).


In 2004 I believe the Combat Upgrade was initiated and many people had had it with SOE. Multitudes grinded the Jedi Village so that they could become Jedi, only to be screwed in the arse when Sony released the NGE, "New Game Enhancements" in 2006 that made Jedi a starter profession. Veteran Jedi got a small, meaningless buff and that peed off a lot of people. They took away most of the professions in the game, and narrowed them down to 9 (copying World of Warcraft). They then added an expertise tree where you could spend expertise points (copying World of Warcraft). After a long fight with SOE, developers finally added Creature Handler back, and since I was going to College I had to leave the game. I eventually did around November of 2007.


The game was a lot of fun- I would play a mix of Combat Medic and Creature Handler as a support role. For the entire length of the game I remained Imperial (The Empire). Space combat was a lot of fun for me as well; and then I started an asteroid mining company and made some profit. Late in the game the server (Eclipse) died and maybe 50 people remained on the server (pitiful). I also left the game.


I am willing to hop back into MMORPG land when TOR comes out- I have been searching for Guild Wars (my CDs) everywhere so I could get an MMO fix- they are addicting. World of Warcraft is too expensive for me at the moment and I feel I am not getting the most out of it for my money. If it was $9.99 a month I would consider it. I will be watching, Bio-Ware!