How the Old Republic Didn’t Change MMOs from Escapist Magazine

Lisa Clark opinion, review

I read a really interesting piece today from Escapist Magazine. It was part of a weekly column “First Person” written by Boston, MA-based freelancer Dennis Scimeca that I often enjoy. This particular write-up on how The Old Republic didn’t change MMOs is spot-on with how I feel about the game in many areas.

Let’s start with saying that it’s not a negative review. In fact, the columnist seems quite content with SWTOR as far as the game itself goes but he makes some very valid points about the MMO aspects and how there are certain things that just cannot be revolutionized yet in the genre. While SWTOR has done some things that no other MMORPG has done, there are still some things that it just hasn’t changed about the genre in SWTOR.

However, it may not really be BioWare’s fault. I mean, this is reportedly one of (if not the) most expensive MMORPG to date and there are only so many things that can be changed, regardless of the amount of money you spend on a game.

This article explores what changes have been made with SWTOR (such as the live voice acting) but it also talks about that which cannot be changed- at least not yet. For example, there are still go-get-x-items quests and no matter how much BioWare tries to spice them up with great storyline, they can be boring and repetitive. This piece talks about some more ways that BioWare and SWTOR did not change MMOs.

In closing, the writer leaves us with these words:

“The long-term importance of The Old Republic to MMO development might not be the changes Bioware introduced, however, but the necessity of judging whether or not the rest of the game adequately supports the changes made. The answer to that question will ultimately drive the genre forward, or make The Old Republic a singular experiment in MMO evolution which goes unrepeated.”

Lisa Clark

Lisa has been an avid gamer since she was old enough to hold her first controller and a game writer for more than a decade. A child of the Nintendo generation, she believes they just don’t make games like they used to but sometimes, they make them even better! While consoles will always be her first love, Lisa spends most of her gaming time on the PC these days- on MMOs and first-person shooters in particular.