Having recently celebrated Star Wars Day, and getting caught up in the recent barrage of updates and rumors on Star Wars Episode 7, we’re bringing you a new column focused on one of the biggest sci-fi franchise. We all had to start somewhere, and our resident Star Wars fan-boy Wedgeantilles began his MMOG experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic. He’ll be giving an outsider’s look on what it’s like to play your first MMOG, along with providing game play insight and helping those of you not as familiar with the platform to not feel so intimidated or alone in vastness of the galaxy that makes up SWTOR. Enjoy.
Staying busy on Ord Mantell is an easy thing, there are separatists to kill, civilians to save, doctors to help, and I was doing it all. However, with Star Wars, something big is always just a step away. One day, while running little side missions for republic military, doctors, or locals, I stumbled upon a hangar with a ship that had the glowing blue door that meant that I, a level 10 smuggler from Ord Mantell, could get in and blast off to the Republic Fleet.
Holy sh*t!
The Fleet is basically a flash point to group up and jump to different worlds, buy some new weaponry, get trained in your character class, whatever you need. Being that I chose the smuggler path I was chasing a galactic scumbag named Skavak who stole my ship on Ord Mantell and made off with my livelihood. Luckily I wasn’t alone, so I had acquired a companion, Corso Riggs. A good fighter who doesn’t talk much. A perfect match. We found ourselves in a docking bay ready to shoot off to the city planet of Coruscant in hopes of tracking down Skavak and getting back my ship. Hoorah.
Once on Coruscant, my mind was blown. The cityscapes and atmosphere of the world is exactly how I imagine it in my little fanboy brain. Then, if it couldn’t get any better, my wife saw the screen and says, “That’s it? Dummy, you don’t have the graphics turned up all the way.” She then boosted the graphics to 100% and my mind was blown again. Ten fold. I could barely contain myself. I’m pretty sure I let out an excited shriek of pure joy as this game just transformed itself into something even better, something more lifelike. What had been good graphics were now amazing, and the world seemed that much more real. I had seen the promised land, and I wanted to stay there.