Early Adoption and the New MMO Gamer

As I mentioned in the first post I am a gamer new to the mmo scene. Without giving my full gaming history (I am saving that for a future post), I'll just say that my first experience playing video games was on an extremely old mac at my grandparent's house playing a game in which two apes threw exploding bananas at each other. Since then I've owned several consoles and handhelds, although I continually find myself coming back to the pc to play games.

So, where am I going with all of this boring personal history?

It makes me sad and lonely to say, but I have not yet had the opportunity (privilege?) to be part of a newly launched mmo. Yes, I tried my darnedest to get into that weird two week Free Realms beta and when the game went live I gave it a shot, but eventually decided my awkward ninteen-year-oldness was at the polar opposite region from the age group they were looking to attract. Who knows though, perhaps in the coming months I will go back? That's the beauty of free to play.

To be perfectly honest I have played WoW on and off since the summer of 2006, but it was not until this past January that I truly immersed myself in the massively multiplayer online culture of games and began to think of myself as an mmo player. To be less label-y: this year the genre began to appeal to and interest me in an entirely new way. I realized that there were plenty of mmo's out there that were not Warcraft.

This brings me to my main point of the post (finally). Star Wars: The Old Republic might as well be the only game on the release calendar, for all the rest of eternity. Global Agenda, Champions, All Points Bulletin, Aion...these are not games I will probably ever play and certainly not on day one of release. SWTOR, however, is one game that I will reserve and stand in line at midnight at GameStop for.

Being part of a game in all its newly released and exceptionally buggy glory has never been appealing to me until now. I'm a moderate Star Wars fan and I'm a huge KOTOR fan so this game is right up my alley, if you will. I want to be one of those (usually annoying) people who can say, *in a crotchety old man's voice* "I remember when SWTOR (insert changed game mechanic here). It's a totally different game these days!" Of course the day when I utter those praises and complaints might be three months after release. Nevertheless, I will have been a part of, what I believe is an experience integral to the genre: The Release.

Reading about so many launch reminesces on sites like Massively and listening to podcasts in which the hosts wax romantic about the glory days of their favorite mmos has got me wanting that same type of experience, and when The Old Republic launches I mean to get that experience.

They say you always have fond memories and rose colored glasses for your first mmo. I think the same must also be true for your first mmo launch.

-Max