KOTOR 3: Single Player VS MMO

Now that we know that the next in the KOTOR series is definitely going to be an MMO, I have already read a number of negative forum posts with people complaining. "Now we'll never see a good ending to the KOTOR storylines" or "I don't want to have to deal with l33t speak n00bs all the time". Some of the points are valid, some are not-so-much.

I loved the first 2 very much. My character was pretty cool looking and I wandered through the single player worlds switching between my crew members. That was pretty fun - getting the chance to try out different styles. Near the end of The Sith Lords, I ended up taking a screenshot of my character so I could send it to my mates even though they had never played the game before. Why did I do this? Because KOTOR 1 and 2 had an experience progression system in place and a way of making me feel unique, yet no way of me showing off what I had achieved. What was the point of becoming a “Just Jedi” when the game had finished? Nothing really (except from a slightly different crew combination and a little different ending).

In Tabula Rasa, I loved the fact that we all started off on the same footing. We were just random soldiers recruited to the war effort and as we leveled up, we specialized and "became" different characters. I ended up playing as a medic running around blasting people in the face with my shotgun and healing, whereas a friend of mine trained down the sniper path. It was cool to see what we had become when we had moved through the levels and how our new found skills could go toward the end game in totally different ways.

KOTOR MMO has the potential to do this very well, providing it stays away from the Star Wars Galaxies way of doing things, and by this I mean changing the way people become a Jedi (this is a whole other topic that I wont go into now). If I'm leveling up while making evil decisions and my friend is making wise decisions, then our paths will be very different and by the end of it, we'll be fighting against each other. It's beautiful!

I'll be the first to say, I don't like having to pay for a subscription to games. I mean, we already pay for the game box, why should we have to pay to play too? Saying this though, MMO's have the potential to be the most involved, immersive games you will ever have the chance to play, and it's this reason alone that gets my vote for KOTOR 3 to be a MMORPG.

Truly immersive single players are few and far between. Oblivion is an example of one of them. The freedom we had in Oblivion was nice - to be able to go wherever we wanted and do whatever quests we wanted. These quests allow the player to experience the story more deeply rather than the traditional linear single player games. But because of the way it was designed, when you leveled up so did the mobs so you never felt like you were getting any more powerful. That was how it allowed the user to travel anywhere they wanted and still have quests to level up. MMO's give you a huge playing area, packed full of quests allowing you to level up and be immersed in the bigger picture storyline and by the end of the zone, you feel substantially more powerful. MMO's by nature have to be large and open to support all the players. Because of this, they have to make a huge effort to help you be part of the storyline. Because of this, each action you take moves you along in the story.

Sometimes in MMO's, some of the quests seem inconsequential. Kill 10 bears please. Why? Oh no reason really, you just look like you need some more experience points. Age of Conan attempts to get around this problem with a nice quest line called the Destiny Quest that runs all the way through your game experience. KOTOR could easily employ something like this to make your character feel special and integral to the story.

Anyway, make up your own minds on this subject. Not that it really matters; the decision has already been taken out of our hands. Maybe in the future someone will make a single player sequel, but until then, I'll be waiting with baited breath for the new MMO.