Pretty sure the items in game are way better than anything you can buy, at least from what I've seen so far

Mr. Garriott sir, you are a disaster for the industry. Please stop making games and count your money in a corner.

Best wishes, gamers everywhere.

It pains me that space and space combat was a development afterthought for this game. It's called "STAR Wars", not "Ground Wars". The opening sequence of ever single Star Wars movie, including the new prequel trash, was in space, flying around in a goddamn ship. 

Whoever thought this game needed to be 95% focus on ground and 5% focus on space (because it's a tunnel shooter, that couldn't have taken more than 1 day to completely design) doesn't tap into the feeling the masses get when they hear "Star Wars".

It's like the lessons learned from Star Wars: Galaxies... weren't really learned.

Very cool read. I still can't believe Wizard101 and Shadowbane were made by some of the same folks. It's nice to have some perspective on how those decisions came about. 

I am _really_ looking forward to this title. I'm an avid EVE player and I hope this will open up some new options for the sovereignty system. I also have lots of friends who enjoy FPS's (I don't) that I can wrangle in to partner with my EVE corp and serve as the "ground pounders". I work in the MMO industry and I have to say, this is revolutionary stuff.

Very good list, and well researched Dana.

LOTRO deserves that #1 spot. It is an excellent game. I was sorry not to see EVE Online on the list, but then I remembered the point of the list "post-WoW" :)

/agree

I have high hopes, because I'm a Star Wars fan.

BioWare makes good games, sure, but the moment they announced a "Star Wars MMORPG", that's what my mind focused on. Playing to an audience other than "Star Wars" or "MMORPG" would seem like a miss to me.

I also have to admit I feel similar to the person a few comments up that indicated everytime s/he reads a new interview they are let down a bit more.

There's talk of freedom, choices, and extreme customization. If so, then why is a bounty hunter 'evil' and why is a smuggler 'good'? That doesn't seem like customization... that seems like pigeon-holing me.

This is a damned fun game, mostly because I love collectible card games and this one actually brings them to life. Later in the game, spell deck strategies become far more interesting too.

Also, it deftly skates around typical MMO crap like gold spambots, tons of asinine cursing, and long travel times/delays.

Kudos.

Great Read!

With respect to games based on existing IP's, I both agree and disagree. The development side of my brain thinks "that makes sense, managing large IP's is often times a disaster waiting to happen", but the fan side of me says, "hell yeah, I want to see more good MMOs based on things like Star Wars or Star Trek".

I totally agree with proper management of expectations. Currently, it's heavy-handed and one-sided. The trouble with that is that being honest about game features sounds good, but if it's not supported with a proper release date based on those discussions, it becomes a disaster. Unless investors are willing to have these frank discussions with a growing fan base and support it with a release date that makes sense to correct the issues, it creates more problems.

I guess its about overall mindset and company philosophy when it comes to this sort of thing. This is exactly why Blizzard Entertainment is on top of the food chain in terms of quality of product, and most every other MMO developer/publisher is scratching their heads. It should not be rocket science to release a product that is actually complete and mostly problem free.

Richard makes some great points here. There are definitely big shifts occuring with the payment/revenue models of online, traditionally subscription based games. I for one, think these changes are an extremely good thing. It means the MMO industry is exploring its flexibility and price elasticity. There are plenty of games, Like EVE Online for example, which I do not think merit $15 a month every month. Sometimes,, I just want to set a timed training that takes many days and I won't be playing. What an excellent candidate for a non-subscription, single microtransaction that is reduced from the full subscription cost. EVE Online is a good example of what I would say is artificially inelastic for no good reason.

Thanks for this look into things, Richard! Keep it up :)

Viking BEARS! *swoon* :)

This is an awesome guide! Sunken City is a tough instance. I had to wait until I was almost done with Krokotopia before attempting to finish it. When I finally beat it, I proudly wore the "Sunken City Survivor" title. :)

I played FFXI for a very long time - and even to me, with perhaps 4 level 75 jobs, it seemed as though Maat's Cap would simply be too far off. The rewards however, are fantastic :)

Actually, I found Wizard101 to be a refreshing change of pace from typical MMOs. The fact that it's based strongly in collectible card game mechanics and turn based strategy are just two of the things I really dig about it.

Awesome! This is a fun game :)