40k is my favourite sci-fi IP, way better than star wars with thier poncy swords and mind tricks (you need propper metal sowrds and the ability to warp in all sorts of nasty things with your mind).

If the lightsabers are just bad annimations and some badly done hotbar skills the game will suck, never mind lack of other gameplay styles. Star wars is such a huge IP that its very easy for them to fail (in my opinion that is, not financialy).

Force Unleashed is anything but a failure, story-wise

Well yeah, that's a given, and it's way too early to tell how the finished product will look. In MMOs especially, a lot of planned features tend to get cut due to time constraints, so everything that's advertized in the beginning isn't necessarily going to be in the final.

Still, apparently they have had writers working on it for years already, so let's hope they do a good job

Could always just give them more hands to work with, too. Sure, humanoid octopusi probably aren't that sexy, but productivity over looks right?

Well, the setting itself is important, and even in an MMO the goal is to make your character fit in in the setting. WoW does a horrible job of this, there's nothing character-specific. Age of Conan does a bit of a better job by making the first 20 levels sort of a hybrid between MMO and single player RPG. It's not per-character class like BioWare wants to do it, but it's per archetype (fighters/rogues/mages).

The idea is even though there's a hundred thousand other people playing the same class, you still feel like you fit in with the game and there's some purpose to your character, rather than just being there.

Well at some parts you're going to have to be the only person in a room, it doesn't make sense that 50 people are being called the chosen one at once...

MMOs are not about stories, they're about sucking your wallet dry. Unless you honestly think Lost is a compelling, deep example of top quality storytelling, expect to have what appears to be ridiculously high expectations smashed flat.

You will not get KOTOR. You will not get Deus Ex. You will not get Baldur's Gate. You will not get ANYTHING resembling a REAL RPG out of this.

It's an MMO, what else is there to say? They want to keep you playing for as long as possible, and they do that by pandering to basic, ridiculous human impulses. You're not going to keep playing it for the story, you're going to keep playing it so you can grind your Level 64 Jedi through the Geonosian Raid Instance to grab a [ForceMaster Jedi Robe +8] to kick Sith ass.

This game will have nothing in common with KOTOR outside of name and setting. It's a shameless cash-in, and Bioware are not the developers they once were. I'm kind of ashamed at the buzz this announcement is generating, I though after the HUNDREDS OF LOUSY MMOS us PC gamers would've gotten a clue and let this genre die. That people are so willing to support the greediest most underdelivering and underhanded form of gaming is bewildering, to say the least.

The only MMO ever worth playing, in my opinion of a gamer who has tried quite a lot of them, was Star Wars Galaxies. Not because of "storytelling" (we all know the story, we would like to make our own now, thank you very much) which was very slim, not because of combat which even then had its lackings (though it was a hundred times more entertaining than the dumbed-down WoW-style "thing" they've got now), but because of the one thing which I believe should be essential to any MMO - the ability to freely shape and express your character.

That said, I think Old Republic is going to be just another WoW clone... they even say so in the interview by "trying to bring in what other successful publishers..."

There will be no skill-based character system. So once again you are boxed in with a lousy bounty-hunter, or a Jedi, or a Sith or whatever. Heavens forbid you should have a Sith Bountyhunter. Or a force-sensitive gambler. Or anything that does not fit into the archetypal segregation of character classes.

My absolutely BEST roleplaying experience was the Mos Eisley cantina evenings on Europe-Chimaera servers in SWG, prior to the debacle known as NGE. I didn't do any quests. Or grinded for that new piece of armor (oh yeah, did I mention that knowing a good craftsman could actually get you THE best equipment for free, because players actually made everything in the game except the most basic gear). I drank the drinks, talked the talk and walked the walk with the rest of the galactic scum, mingled with unlikely heroes, got shaken down by arrogant stormtroopers (we ambushed them later in an alley), and into a fist-fight with a cocky human who thought he could take on a Trandoshan hunter like me. And then got beat up in turn by his master.

All content by the players, for the players.

In an MMO, I don't need a "rich story". I need an open world, with solid background and the freedom to express myself through my character. That's the ONLY thing a MMO can have better compared to single player games. Sadly, game developers seem to ignore this fact and cater to the grinder kiddie crowd. I guess it nets more mula.

I'll break something very expensive if Old Republic ends up another generic run of the mill MMO.

Since the game came out I have been wandering around looking to see what people are saying about it. There seems to be a good deal of traffic in here. This Post made me crack up. Since most of the discussion seems to be happening in here I thought I would just link this article. It's long but it pretty much sums up how I feel.

Plus the picture is just funny. You will need to read the stuff above the image to get the whole joke.