Dear Star Wars: The Old Republic,
Hello! How does this letter find you? I myself am well. I couldn’t help but notice you at E3, and...well, your trailer was pretty nice looking I have to admit. All of those flashy moves and that pulse pounding action, it was like I was watching a new Star Wars movie, a new Star Wars movie that didn’t suck! I was pretty psyched. But then I waited until the end of the trailer, hoping to chat you up and maybe get your number and...well, I was a little disappointed when I found out you were a game.
Not disappointed because you’re a game. No, no, no. Nothing like that. I like games a lot, and Star Wars games? Mee-ow. But you came on like you just wanted a short little tumble in the Star Wars universe, just a two hour quickie and then we’d go our separate ways with fond memories of the time we shared. But then you come out and tell me that you want months, if not years of my life? It’s a bit much a bit soon, and you haven’t really told me anything about yourself.
I mean, that Mandalorian, oh, I’m sorry, bounty hunter who just looked and acted exactly like a Mandalorian flew around and that was super cool and everything, but there’s no proof or line of reasoning to show that we’ll be able to do anything even remotely that cool. Most of your sister-games don’t even let players jump. If you want to live up to the promises you’ve made in that video you’re going to have to let us do that and a whole lot more, and I know that kind of freedom can be scary. Especially when everyone related to you would call you tramp for doing it.
And then you brought in that smuggler, who didn’t really do anything the whole time? That didn’t really show us a whole lot. Neither did the Sith, come to think of it. A Jedi doing cool moves? Lightsabers in Star Wars? The occasional force push? Stop the fucking presses. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to jump off the handle, it’s just that... None of the trailer really showed us anything, aside from that fact that you’re a Star Wars game (again, totally hot!) and... Well, I’d like a little more before I make a commitment.
Not that the frenetic leaping wasn’t nice. It was really fun to watch, it was just... Well... I’d like to get to know the real you, and I bet I’m not the only one. I bet lots of people think that there’s a lot going on in that head of yours, and we’d like to get better acquainted with it before we jump off the deep end and break up with WoW.
I know it’s early in the relationship, and I don’t want to rush into thing and find out too much too soon. That could kill all the excitement and intensity. But a little bit of information would be nice. Maybe a nice little website letting me know the races and classes available? I hate to bring up old flames, but back when WoW did that it was pretty exciting. Even though we didn’t get a chance to do a whole lot with one another for a while it really made me think about WoW a lot, even when we weren’t together, and I’d like to have that with you.
But hey, I understand if you’re unsure. I mean, this is pretty early in the game for you and word on the street is that you’re pretty inexperienced in this way. Not in general. You've done everything up to launching an MMO, but that last big step can be scary. And we’d like to be there for you to walk you through it. But you have to communicate with us.
You can’t bring this closemouthed stoic attitude to the table. It just won’t work. I need to know you, the real you, and not the you that your marketing department wants to show us. I'm not saying that you is bad, it’s just...not genuine. And what I’ve seen so far tells me next to nothing.
A handful of previews mentioning the possibility of a cover system? A brief description of the Sith as a class which makes them sound like a crappy amalgam of the Jedi classes you’ve offered in previous releases and the rogue from WoW? And a description of the Bounty Hunter as a ranged DPS unit? You could’ve just left off the Bounty and 12 million players would’ve been able to figure that out pretty quickly for themselves.
Sorry, I went a little crazy there. It’s just that you’ve always shown such depth and thoughtfulness, especially with regard to characters in the past and now that you’ve shown up and pulled this She’s All That Shit? Especially after your cousin, Dragon Age, decided to put on all that black eyeliner and start listening to Marilyn Manson? It makes me worried. The depth and interplay of classes that Knights of the Old Republic showed was great. It changed the way I saw Jedi in video games and made them into intriguing, diverse, fun characters instead of unstoppable bad asses with one dimensional personalities. It’d be great if that kept going. Even better, maybe we can bring a few fresh faces into the mix? Sorry, I don’t want to get too crazy this early with you.
I just don’t want to see a single Jedi and a single Sith class in a release where the majority of the players are all going to want to be using a lightsaber. Because if you offer a lot of options for how to play with a lightsaber you’re going to get some much more interesting results. Maybe something wonderful will happen, something you never expected. Maybe you’ll break the cycle of loneliness which has afflicted Star Wars MMOs for the last two generations. Maybe you’ll even upstage WoW, the prettiest girl at the party, not that it’s very likely.
But you’re not going to do it by trying to make yourself into some infinitely likeable tart that everyone already knows. You’ll do it by being what we all know you have the potential to be: a deep, thoroughly interactive experience set in a rich, immersive world which is simultaneously familiar and strange. You just need to be more confident and let us know the real you. And please, stop listening to your marketing department. They make you look like a tramp. And you can be so much more.
In closing, I just wanted to say that we’d like to see more of you. You’ve got my number, so feel free to give me a call. I think it could be a lot of fun.
Sincerely,
Mike
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