Overly Positive

The longer a game is out in the public eye, the more hype and buzz starts to surround it like a palpable bubble of anticipation. With this comes great exposure, and that is both good and bad. This is because while you get a lot of people really excited about a title, you also run the risk of having your anticipation bubble popped by a needle of dread and fear that the game won’t deliver on its promises.

Such as it is with Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, which recently passed the one-year anniversary of its announcement to the public and is basically chugging right along at a marked pace. Understandably, Bioware’s been a bit tight-lipped about many of the details of the game, but what has been released has done nothing but whet the appetite of the people that are raring to play it. But aside from that are forum threads and posts that are beginning to pop up from players with furrowed brows about various segments of the game and whether they’ll be able to deliver properly. With the small level of real and detailed information that has been released by TOR, the threads have become all manner of worry and even stress over what might not work.

Not surprisingly, I’m pretty non-plussed about all the agony that is felt with regards to TOR’s ability to deliver. Whipping yourself into a frenzy over the fact that the voiceovers might be tedious or unnecessary, the PvP could be imbalanced, the graphics won’t get a good pass, or that game-breaking bugs will appear isn’t worth it to me. While speculation is all well and good, especially when it comes to what Bioware will be doing with their first MMO, anticipating or fearing that the game won’t deliver just isn’t healthy for your gaming experience. I like to take TOR’s promises with a grain of salt – part of it is the necessary hype needed from marketing, and the other is the simple reality that all MMOs, no matter how good they sound on paper, will probably have growing pains. It’s been true ever since I was ganking poor little newbies for their cash and cackling maniacally in Ultima Online, and it’ll continue to be true as long as the MMO paradigm doesn’t shift severely.

Really, part of the anxiety Star Wars: The Old Republic’s potential players are feeling is partially due to the waiting. With TOR so far out from release, it’s plenty of time for people to go through a cyclical phase of devour-discuss-dread when it comes to every bit of new info. Imaginations run wild and sometimes they can get away from people. To be perfectly honest, people will either be satisfied or not when TOR finally hits the shelves. Worrying about the latter, especially this far out from the TOR release date, is just bad for you. If, ultimately, TOR doesn’t deliver for folks that are reading this, it should be based on the direct gameplay experience you have playing it, not from what might happen based upon a few nuggets of info. Do what I do, and enjoy yourself on the hype train. You’ll be less stressed out.