I have put so many hours in to the first two games in this series, having played both through several times. One of my favourite series, and the first is easily up there among my top five of all time. To get this, an MMO, after so many years of waiting for a sequel, is like a slap in the face. For me at least, one of the major draws of a game, and of an RPG in particular, is the storyline, and the characters. Some of these games require a lot of hours to be committed, and to put 40 hours into a video game without losing interest is very rare for me these days, because when you get past the amazing graphics and so-so gameplay there is nothing of substance to draw me into the game. Having to know what happens next in a good story is the main driving force that keeps me going for all that time. Knights of the Old Republic had that rare combination of gameplay, characters, and storyline that drew a few plays out of me every now and then even though I had already gone through the dialogue and plot. The main failing of MMOs up to this point, in my opinion, is the inability to craft an effective storyline and create some kind of meaningful connection to the characters. The Old Republic looks like it is taking great strides towards bridging the gap, I have quite a few doubts though. With an MMO, one of the major draws is the endless gameplay, never running out of new things to explore. How can one maintain a good storyline and characters over the amount of continual content that must go into an MMO? I have watched many videos of The Old Republic, and not one of them has yet succeeded in turning me on to the game. However, I guess all judgements must be reserved until one gets the game in their hands, which I will probably end up doing at some point. I hope it will not be a disappointment, but I recognize there is a distinct possibility. I recall when I graduated from the Nintendo 64 back in the day to the original Xbox; the concept of using two joysticks to aim in a first person shooter boggled my mind and I wasn't sure if I would be able to adjust. Nowadays it's hard going back to Goldeneye and using one joystick to both aim and move.
