I’m Still Bummed Out About This Star Wars Game

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Role-playing games are notoriously difficult to design well. If they focus too much on rules and systems, players can get overwhelmed. But if they prioritize story over gameplay, the experience can become boring. Massively multiplayer RPGs, or MMORPGs, face an even bigger challenge: they need to constantly keep their worlds fresh and interesting to maintain player engagement and prevent things from feeling repetitive.

Very few MMORPGs manage to last, and those that do, like World of Warcraft, often become genre-defining for years. Another game, released fourteen years ago, seemed poised to challenge World of Warcraft and expand on a popular single-player game. Sadly, it fell into the same common pitfalls as other MMORPGs, making it a particularly disappointing experience for me.

How Knights Of The Old Republic Became A Success For BioWare

BioWare’s first venture into the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) genre was Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was a well-made and engaging RPG, but it struggled to truly differentiate itself from other games in the genre. The Old Republic was a significant project for BioWare, aiming to capitalize on the popularity of the Knights of the Old Republic RPG from ten years prior. The goal was to create an MMORPG with the immersive storytelling of a single-player game, justifying an ongoing subscription. To achieve this, a team of writers developed extensive storylines, giving each character class a unique three-part story arc for players to experience.

The game was a huge undertaking, costing the studio around $200 million to create. Launched on December 20, 2011, it’s still considered an impressive achievement and has generated over a billion dollars in revenue for EA over the past fourteen years. Critics generally praised its story and immersive world, though they also pointed out common issues with the MMORPG genre. Despite a dedicated player base and several strong story-based expansions, the game never reached the same level of popularity as World of Warcraft. Looking back, the initial million players on launch day doesn’t seem quite as significant, considering how many eventually stopped playing.

You Were Supposed To Be The Chosen One

I was one of the many players drawn in by the promise of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’d always struggled to get into MMORPGs, so I was particularly excited about this game when it was announced. The impressive cinematic trailers and its connection to the beloved Knights of the Old Republic gameplay suggested a game that could feel like a single-player adventure within a massive Star Wars universe. It seemed perfect for me, and I was one of the million players who quickly signed up. I even created a cybernetic smuggler, finally getting to live out my dream of being Han Solo.

I really enjoyed the story and the world they built, but honestly, I got frustrated with how much the game felt like a typical MMO. The characters were cool, but the fighting just became a grind – I spent way too much time running through dungeons. And when other players started showing up, it kind of ruined the feeling of being my story. It felt weird, like I wasn’t just a normal person in this huge galaxy, but someone super important. I think games like World of Warcraft did this better – they let you feel like you could become a legend without making it feel like the whole world revolved around you. Everything felt connected and happened for a reason, and it wasn’t like things were happening to you without any control.

The game aimed for the immersive storytelling of a single-player adventure, but that felt out of place in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It also struggled to consistently capture the feel of Star Wars without disrupting the player’s experience. Quests became predictable, character progression was too flexible, and the different storylines didn’t offer enough variety to encourage multiple playthroughs. Ultimately, the game suffered from common MMO issues, which was disappointing for those hoping for a strong narrative focus. It felt like a potentially great single-player game that was weighed down by unnecessary MMO features.

Games like this succeed or fail based on how much players enjoy them. They need a large and active community to support the powerful servers required for such expansive worlds. For me, once I finished the main storyline, I felt satisfied and didn’t feel the need to keep playing. Even the new expansions, while interesting in theory, didn’t offer enough new content to draw me back in. The developers behind Old Republic are talented, and the game still has dedicated fans, but it’s disappointing that it couldn’t overcome the issues that have caused many promising online role-playing games to fail.

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2025-12-21 00:14