I know, there are a bunch of acronyms in that title. But last night I had the opportunity to play Star Wars: The Old Republic a bit more extensively than I usually do. As you all know, I'm taking a break from Skyrim because Skyrim has come frustrating game altering bugs and needs patched right now.

But I digress. Bioware, the developer of Star Wars: The Old Republic has worked on this game for about 4 or 5 years now and just released it on December 20th of last year. I had the opportunity to participate in and shared my thoughts on the SWToR BETA a few times when the game came out and saw promising results, even though I had concerns about their limited amount BETA testing they were doing prior to release.

However, last night I really began to see Bioware's high quality game development start to pay off. Bioware is known for their in-depth character development and story arcing when it comes to their games. Bioware is known for incredible games including the Mass Effect series, Dragon Age series, Baldur's Gate series and the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Most of their repertoire includes games that have won Game of the Year.

I thought I would spend some time to break down why this game is fantastic and how it separates itself from other Massive Online games that have hit the market. Remember, I have been a MMO gamer since Everquest – so I've been doing this awhile – I also participated in the failed Star Wars Galaxies fiasco.

1. Character Driven Story

Since MMOs were conceived long ago in MUD text based gaming no game has made strides to create an overall story arc for your main character. The reason? Too much work and complications. When you make a single player story line in a world where everyone wants to feel like the hero, how do you separate your hero from the rest?

Well Bioware has developed an extremely unique answer to this problem. In war, there are many heroes, so why not let more than one people be one? Essentially, we all play our part in the bigger battle, and each individual class, whether it be a Commando, Jedi or Smuggler is thrown into the overall crisis of the story and is given opportunities to be a hero.

This logic works great when you get into areas of the game that require groups, because you have developed your characters values and personality before going on missions with other people. The great thing? On group missions, also called Flashpoint missions, you get to participate in the storyline and contribute your dialogue. I know many of you are wondering how it works, well it is difficult to explain, you really just have to be there.

2. Encouragement of Social Interaction

Traditionally games relied solely on the community to communicate with one another and start groups for the simple social aspect of the game. The problem MMOs have run into, however, is that the game doesn't really give them much to talk about. Bioware solves this problem by getting you emotionally involved in your character and his story – bringing up topics of discussion on possible consequences of decisions that are made during a quest.

If you are doing a mission with a friend or a complete stranger, decisions need to be made that can affect the overall outcome of not only that particular mission, but your overall characters storyline. This brings up many topics of discussion of ethics and morality as well as right and wrong while in a group and it gives people an opportunity to connect on a deeper level than simple character qualities.

Bioware also implemented a social leveling system where you gain experience and levels the more you participate in community based quests and flashpoints. There are items you can use that have social level requirements that can help separate you from other players.

3. It's Not About The Gear or Leveling… For Once

That's right, for once not everyone is grinding away to "finish the quest" and "get the best gear" – it's actually about accomplishing a goal. Since the crisis is so well established and the storyline conflict is so immersive, the group might initially start by wanting to "get the job done" but usually within a half an hour it's "Alright, now it's personal, lets waste these losers."

Of course, that doesn't mean the gear and leveling aren't there and aren't done incredibly well (they are), but it is refreshing to see a game that brings the focus off of such narcissistic tendencies by most gamers and get them to focus on what is most important, vanquishing or encouraging evil.

4. No Waiting Around

This is not necessarily true, but it is true, know what I mean? Probably not, but Bioware did a fantastic job when considering their crafting system by implementing companions at your disposal to perform many menial and redundant tasks for you. Primarily, you can send your companions out on resource gathering missions for crafting or send them off to craft items for you. You can even send a companion out to conduct investigations and get rewards when you aren't using them.

During a group quest this is great because you can continually put your companion to work and manage what they are doing during quest down time. If someone has to go to the restroom or go AFK for a bit, there is plenty you can do to keep yourself busy until they get back that affects the overall performance and development of your character.

5. Companions That You Care About

Never in the history of Massive Online Games has a game developer put effort into giving you an NPC character in your crew that you actually care about. Using the companion based strategies Bioware perfected in Mass Effect and Dragon Age they implemented a companion system that actually includes a story arc for your own crew mates.

They take this even further by implementing a system that shows your companions opinions of you and allows you to perform tasks or make decisions with them that improve how they think about you. In turn, they become better companions because they believe in what you are doing and your leadership.

There are also instances during your quest line where your companion will want to have private conversations with you, where you can learn more about them and get quests to help them out or improve their opinions about you. They will confront you on issues that they think you aren't handling properly and you can either agree with them or put them in their place.

This is fantastic for character development because it allows you to reaffirm your stances on the important issues while developing a relationship with another character in the game. The more you learn about your companion the more you learn what they like and dislike, so Bioware implemented the companion gifting system they did in their other games, where you can give your companion a gift you know they will like and they will become more affectionate towards you. The better the gift, the more reward it will yield.

Conclusion:

I could go on and on about this subject but I better not. In fact, if I do I probably will not get any work done today. These are just some of the most impressive features I have seen in this game so far and guess what, I am only level 12 – that's right, I have done very little and experienced only a fraction of what this game has to offer.

For those of you mildly interested in MMO games, pick this one up and give it a shot, I guarantee you will not regret it. Thanks again Bioware, you do good work.