Bio Break

You’d think that news of SWTOR being handed off between companies and having its dev team cut in half would send me running far away from this game. It’s actually proven the opposite. I’ve been flirting with this title in 2023, and now I weirdly feel optimistic about it. Well, hopeful. I think there’s a real chance here for some scrappy devs at a studio that realizes what an opportunity its been handed to prove themselves, and I wouldn’t mind going along for that ride.

For this ride, I went for a change of scenery — and servers — and hopped over to Satele Shan, where I’ve had no presence whatsoever. This also means I have no legacy or race unlocks other than one extra one I bought from the cartel market. But that’s OK, because none of that stopped me from rolling up a fresh Imperial Agent with a sweet ‘do and some Bounty Hunter arsenal skills. Hey, blasting things with missiles may not be a subtle spy move, but who cares? It’s MISSILES.

I’d forgotten how gripping the IA storyline is, even right from the start. I’m trying to play her as friendly and light side as possible, but she isn’t too good for a moment of revenge — in the name of justice, of course.

I got off to a pretty strong start with this character, too. By the time I was done with Hutta, I was level 17 and had finished every main, side, and heroic quest available. Still hadn’t found a good guild, though — a concern that was pressing on me.

I have to say, I was unprepared to have the excitement bug clamp down on me as hard as it has in SWTOR this past week. It’s hard to pinpont exactly why, probably because it’s a mix of factors. SWTOR’s been on my mind a lot due to the recent news, but not in a bad way. Perhaps that stoked the fires of nostalgia and the thought of future great adventures on a fresh server. Maybe it’s even finding a fun combination in the Agent story/Bounty Hunter combat style that’s working here.

But it’s certainly been a good revisit, and one that I certainly hope becomes a longer run. The idea of finding a good community in this game and enjoying a new journey through all of the content could conceivably keep me occupied for the rest of the year. So I’m a bit thrilled at the thought of this being a possibility, set against a dash of realism knowing how quickly things can flame out. But if I’m still playing after a month, well, I think this may have legs.

For a long time now, I’ve gotten the distinct impression that BioWare didn’t really want to be in the MMO business — and was annoyed at being saddled with SWTOR (especially after it didn’t immediately dethrone World of Warcraft). Sure, the studio poured in a lot of resources, churned out several expansions, had a lot of solid devs working on it… but this wasn’t a title that BioWare wanted to invest in. It wanted to get away from it, and now, with last week’s news that the game’s being handed over to Broadsword, BioWare gets its wish.

We’ve known for a while that something was coming for SWTOR — we just had no idea what. Development had really slowed to a crawl, last year’s Legacy of the Sith expansion was anything but an expansion, and BioWare long since stopped talking up SWTOR. There were worries of a shutdown, and if that had happened, I don’t think too many people would’ve been shocked. Upset, yes, but not shocked.

This is objectively better than a shutdown, although it really remains to be seen whether SWTOR will benefit or languish in this move. Concerns include the fact that the dev team is going to be halved, the community is freaking out, some players will get the jitters and jump ship, and genuine fear that Broadsword really won’t have the resources or ability to produce new content (at least, story-wise) for this rather expensive title. The phrase “maintenance mode” is being tossed about pretty freely, and while I think it’s far too early to jump to that conclusion, I can understand the thought behind it.

Yet it really isn’t as doomy-and-gloomy as some might lead you to believe (or you to yourself, for that matter). First, SWTOR was already languishing at BioWare without the respect and support it needed. A sale to a new studio that is scrappy and eager to prove itself might be a great boon. Second, experienced devs are coming over, and that means that the studio doesn’t have to build a team up from scratch. Third, EA is going to continue to publish SWTOR and the license is continuing, so life is ensured for the moment. Fourth, some current and former SWTOR devs have expressed pretty strong support for this move. And fifth, the Star Wars name is still worth something, and SWTOR does have a pretty loyal community.

It may get scary and shaky for a while, but I’m oh-so-cautiously optimistic that SWTOR will come out on the upside here. It’s a HUGE get for Broadsword, which is going to be moving up a tier or two in the MMO world with this addition, and that studio would be stupid to let this peter out. And Broadsword has a better track record than, say, Gamigo for keeping older MMOs running and providing them with ongoing development.

Having gone back to SWTOR earlier this year and rediscovering my joy of this title, I’m rooting for its success. And, weirdly enough, this announcement makes me want to play it more rather than less. It might be a while with my current schedule, but I think there’s many more years to come with this game.

I am wondering what the dev team may need to do to adjust how it develops content. The voice acting seems like the biggest obstacle; could it be wiser if SWTOR drops its “always voice acted” moments for simpler text dialogue in the interest of producing more content? I think they did a bit of this back with the Eternal Throne expansion, like old KOTOR-style. And if they went that route, a new class story or different additional class stories would be a lot more feasible.

This is also an opportunity to create fresh-start servers or even a progression server! I’d love to see the latter, for sure.

Anyway, it’s a make-or-break moment for SWTOR. Here’s a toast to its success.