re: #262 LudwigVanQuixote

Dude… well said.

The reason that I think Old Republic will be awesome is that it is Bioware and they have consistently in the course of developer interviews been harping on the vary points you bring up. If anyone can pull off the incredibly ambitions goals that the devs are talking about, it is Bioware. Since they made Baldur’s Gate, Kotor, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I am willing to at least give them the benefit of the doubt.

All dialogue is fully voice acted for example. All characters make choices that will effect their personal stories permanently. The game is set up so that different choices can put different player characters at odds. Each character class has its own story arc.

As to epicness, a full galaxy at war with legions of Sith fighting the legions of Jedi is pretty dan epic IMHO and in the original sense of the word.

Yes, indeed, if anyone can, Bioware can. But while the personal storyline, the fully voiced game, and so forth will in fact be impressive, I’m still not certain it will make for a great MMO recipe.

I’ve played a lot of MMOs for at least a short time - I don’t like reaching ‘endgames’, because they’re the least interesting parts of the game. I’ve found something to appreciate in most of them. WoW had numbers and accessibility, Vanguard had a nice world and a very impressive diplomacy aspect, Warhammer had the best PvP (and the best PvPers) I’ve seen, CoH had a tremendously robust system underpinning it, Star Wars Galaxies had the greatest crafting and economic system ever designed, and so on. A truly great MMO could combine so many of these things, and avoid the pitfalls of others. I’m not sure the market could support it, because I’m not sure the market in a post-WoW world appreciates what a truly impressive achievement such a game would be. But I remain hopeful.

I will of course try TOR and Dark Millennium. Of all the worlds in gaming, Star Wars and Warhammer (including 40K) are the best and most enduring IPs, gaming worlds that are the veritable gold standard against which all other IP will be measured and found wanting. It takes more than great IP to make a great MMO, though.