Can Star Wars: The Old Republic Live Up To The Hype?

I was lay in bed last night thinking about Star Wars The Old Republic – it’s one of those things I do. And the more I think about it, the more I think it’s such a strange prospect for an MMO. A quick look over the details is comforting....

....plenty of classes to choose from, worlds to explore and things to do. But the same could be said for a dozen MMOs, all of which are no longer here.

Let’s consider some of the other film based online games that came out in recent years. The Matrix Online I never played, but from the reviews I’ve read it seems like it could have been tactfully accused of having “a lack of polish.” Lord of the Rings Online recently went free-to-play, for better or for worse, but never before has it been more tempting to become a Hobbit. I expect with the upcoming film adaption of The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings Online will experience a slight growth in users. No matter what you think of free-to-play, there’s no doubt that it gets bums on seats.

Star Wars Galaxies is now 8 years old and, despite positive feedback at release, it seems it took a little while for it to work out the kinks, slowly losing out to World of Warcraft and other, bigger games. While it may not have had hours and hours worth of NPC speech - a must-have, right? – Star Wars Galaxies was the first Star Wars based MMO and, despite its longevity, I’m not sure it’ll ever go down in the annals of video game history as a huge success.

So other than the NPC speech, what else does BioWare hope will differentiate their masterpiece from Galaxies?

When Galaxies launched there was very little story. The idea of being a character in the Star Wars universe was supposed to be enough to keep things ticking along as you explored semi-aimlessly and met up with other sci-fi fans and compared zits, or whatever there was to do in a world populated, but with little happening.

BioWare have gone out of their way to ensure that that doesn’t happen again. From the get go, you’ll be immersed in a world complete with events and people and battles – even if you’re the very first person on a server. You’ll still be wandering around planets you’ll probably recognized from the extended Star Wars universe, but you’ll have a goal, you’ll have a reason to be there.

Of course, what will sell this game more than Galaxies could manage is the hype. Since its announcement in 2008, The Old Republic has captured the hearts and minds of millions: it has the potential, I am told by one restless Star Wars devotee, of knocking WoW from its throne. While I don’t believe that to be true (WoW will play on anybody’s system, The Old Republic won’t), it will certainly be the first game to come close in a long while.

It’s not all been positive hype though. EA Louse was (the blog is no longer there) a BioWare employee who came forward with the intention of blowing the lid on the terrible working conditions whilst developing The Old Republic. The reaction was amazing, a little blog went from obscurity to all the industry would talk about in the space of a few days. From the original blog:
“And Bioware? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Kid you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that?

And you know what they’re most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20GB installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That’s the best they have. The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas, they’re panicking, and so most of Mythic has already been cannibalized to work in Austin on it because they can’t keep pushing back launch.”

David Jaffe put in his two cents, although I’ve never managed to work out why. Sites from around the internet reported on EA Louse’s posts for weeks after the initial blog was published. I remember hundreds of comments on the original post from people who couldn’t bear to think that The Old Republic was going to be anything but a success.

And yet with every post EA Louse made complaining of the work conditions or the terribleness of the gameplay, millions more people got to read about The Old Republic, got to see screenshots and discuss the game with others. If the author of that blog really was an employee of BioWare, they helped sell more copies of the game than they probably care to admit.

Reviews that I’ve read of the closed Beta, and there are definitely reviews out there that ignore BioWares NDA, seem to give the impression that EA Louse was right – The Old Republic contains a lot of shiny attention grabbers (voice work, nice graphics, cut scenes) but very little that actually puts it above of its competitors. Now, I haven’t played in the Beta and I can’t comment with any certainty on the quality of the game, but that isn’t surprising. One reviewer called it Knights of the Old Republic Online, and that’s exactly what I was expecting.

While it may not push the MMO genre forward, the advertising and hype behind the game will definitely sell copies. But not too many copies, considering the recent announcement that EA will be selling a limited amount of The Old Republic at launch. This is to avoid unfortunate server crashes when the game first comes out, hopefully avoiding negative reviews and annoyed players.

But it will also have the side effect of creating a need to buy. Think about the Wii, you couldn’t buy it anywhere, there were signs up in every window where ever stock had been delivered. Granted, the Wii was a console and it hooked the casual crowd, but a similar thing is going to happen. If people who want the game can’t buy it, word of mouth will spread and it will generate more interest.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to sell amazingly well; it’s as simple as that. Not because of its Star Wars base, that ship sailed a long time ago with Galaxies, but because BioWare have put everything they can into getting people talking about their game. Personally I can‘t wait to play it, if only so I can make my own decisions on the final quality of the title.

Mat Growcott