Place 8: Star Wars – The Old Republic
Developer: Broadsword | Platform: PC | Release Date: December 20, 2011 | Model: Free2Play
The freelance journalist and MMORPG enthusiast Gloria H. Manderfeld is just the right person to honor SW:TOR: Quiz question: In which MMORPG can you strangle a slave with her electro collar, sleep with your apprentice, seduce a mysterious blue-skinned person and receive a romantic love letter full of death statistics?
Gloria is also part of the wonderful team of the podcast Insert Moin, where she along with Nina Kiel oversees the series Random Encounters, which deals with erotic games and related meta topics. Make sure to check it out!
If you have a specific image in mind with all these examples, you are surely a long-time player of Star Wars: The Old Republic, which launched in 2011 to become the new WoW killer.
Of course, the then developers Bioware with their first MMORPG did not manage to dethrone the industry giant neither in scope nor in updates. As a fan, I had to overcome some dry spells, as Bioware’s attention for SW:TOR was often given to other titles, causing the developer team to be reduced.
The fact that I still remain loyal to the game even after over ten years has a simple reason, despite all the flaws and the occasional jealous glances towards ESO and WoW: Atmospherically, SW:TOR pushes all the buttons for me as a Star Wars groupie and provides me with epic experiences, lightsabers, and secrets.
I carve my path through Sith intrigues, philosophical Jedi, upright rogues, and motivated militaries, switch off my head after a stressful workday with relaxed daily quests, and experience my adventures with an NPC companion of my choice, with some I can even engage in a romance.
Particularly in storytelling, Bioware fully exploited their studio strengths and through many big and small stories prepared some surprises for me; two of these romances particularly impressed me (Vector Hyllus 4eva!).
Don’t let the somewhat outdated graphics and the very classic combat system discourage you from trying it out – the developers’ love lies within the stories, and there is a whole lot of hot stuff waiting for you. And: If you prefer to be solo most of the time, you can go very far in SW:TOR. Only in raids does it not work without support.
