Are you ready? This week is the head start for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Jedi, Sith, Bounty Hunters, and Smugglers everywhere are gearing up for the MMO that has been on everyone’s radar for almost four years now. The game is BioWare’s first step into the MMO genre and comes in more like a freight train. So let’s take a look at a few reasons why playing this game will be great starting up this week and we have everything ramped up. If you are a Star Wars fan it is a home run. If you are an MMO fan it offers some amazing story and quests followed up with some solid PvP and raids. If you are a BioWare fan you will get the amazing story that you have come to expect. So, get your lightsaber ready its time to go to battle.

The first reason head start is exciting is the ability to play through all the awesome content right away. Content in this game is like a giant Chinese buffet only the food is maxxed out and gourmet-made by some chef like Gordon Ramsey. The stories for the classes are exciting and very well thought out. In beta I played the Jedi Knight and Bounty Hunter and loved every second of the stories for both. From a person who got fed up with Dragon Age about half way through, Old Republic kept me wanting more in terms of what was happening to my character on the path I had chosen. In many ways the RPG aspect of the game is fantastic and is a full-on escape into the Star Wars universe. My advice for this week is to choose your main character very carefully, take your time and be specific. The reason is going back and re-rolling a Jedi because you don’t like the face you chose... well, you have a lot of story to go back through if you do. So for the head start, take your time and choose wisely.

Aside from the story aspect of the game, on the MMO front it holds up pretty well. The worlds are open and there are lot of nooks and crannies to explore. Playing with friends and guilds is definitely where the game gets interesting. There are plenty of ways to max out groups and teams and make your crew one of the best on your server. Lately I have missed logging into an MMO and saying hi to friends online. Star Wars has the canvas to build an amazing community, and word is they have lots planned to make it even better going forward. Let’s hope the players take advantage of this and really bring the world that BioWare has created to life.

Another area that gets overlooked in the game is crafting. There has not been too much talk about it and yet, I remember how big crafting became in Star Wars: Galaxies. It was a huge part of the community. The idea of Synthweaving and doing some Artifice crafting with my Sith Warrior is really exciting. Even though I normally don’t craft in MMOs this game has me looking forward to building my own items. I am curious how this aspect of the game progresses though.  One of the major things about crafting in any MMO is that it never matches items from Raid content. If Star Wars can pull this off and keep crafted and raid items on an equal playing field, then it will definitely be cool to try and build up some skills.  Thoughts from players who have done a lot of crafting in the beta?

Choosing a server is a big deal too. I mean the faction choices are pretty clear but if you are not part of a guild or anything then choosing which server you want to play on may be critical. I remember going through this in Warcraft and picking our original server on day one, just because the name was cool. It ended up being one of the top servers in the game overall. Star Wars will have a similar rush for players to get in and get going. There are always the hardcore MMO-ers who have to be level 50 first. This is great and all, but when it comes to Old Republic the game is made for you to stop and smell the roses.  There is so much going on in the story you are not going to want to rush into this game just vying for max level. If anything taking time with this game is the important part, since the story is the big draw.

So there are my main thoughts as the Head Start for Star Wars: The Old Republic gets underway. I know I am excited to get started tomorrow, especially with my wife’s sewing group coming over. Sew away ladies…I’ll be a Sith Bad Ass by the time you leave! Looking forward to seeing everyone in the game!