Republic Relations

I haven’t had much to do with Star Wars: The Old Republic. I saw the intro video and thought it looked silly largely due to a) one character looking too much like John Marston and therefore very out of place and b) showing a lot of ‘characters being improbably awesome’ sequences that plagued the prequel trilogy. Besides, attempting to usurp World of Warcraft on the untouchable throne of MMORPG? You would have to extremely insane or extremely confident - to the point of being extremely insane.

Nevertheless, earlier this week I had my real first exposure to Star Wars: The Old Republic in the form of a friend showing me some videos showcasing some of the classes available. Thus I got to see the Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter and the Smuggler. And from what I’ve seen there is some degree of appeal – I like how the Imperial Agent offered the role of a sniper. I love how the bounty hunter seemed the offer both the tank role and gunning down dudes with a second thought. And even the smuggler looked interesting with the offer of ranged combat (even if, at one point, they end up looking like that out-of-place John Marston clone).

But I don’t know about a Star Wars MMORPG. It’s not just the idea that the only thing to usurp WoW is to utilize an even bigger geek franchise. No – you see SWOTR is ultimately following the lead of the KOTOR in that it’s set some time before the original trilogy of movies. I see some problems in that a) how will this fit in with KOTOR? b) it is yet another reminder that the prequels exist no matter how many people try to deny it and c) whereas WoW had the Alliance and the Horde locked in an eternal stalemate, setting a Star Wars MMORPG in the prequel universe doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. I mean we all know what’s going to happen: The Republic will fall, the Empire will take over and eventually the Rebel Alliance will rise up – hardly a set up that invites some degree of longevity (as WoW’s continued existence has proven). 

 In fact, now that I think of it, I wonder why Bioware didn’t set it after the original trilogy? I don’t know about the rest of you but I would like to see the Star Wars universe once the tables have turned. I mean who wouldn’t want to see the Alliance in power and how they handle it? Who wouldn’t want to see the Imperial forces attempt to regroup and rebuild following the end of Emperor Palpatine?

Still, despite my cynicism, I have to admit there is some appeal to Star Wars The Old Republic so it may be worth a look.....