Emergent Future

... In more ways than one. BioWare has (finally) announced the game that (we all knew) they are working on: Star Wars: The Old Republic , set 350 years after the Knights of the Old Republic games. KotoR has a very high standing amongst Star Wars fans as being an amazing game - in fact, a lot of gamers tend to agree on that. There's an awful lot of hope out there that BioWare, a well respected company, will be able to take Star Wars into a positive direction with this game.

Personally, my first online community was the Star Wars Galaxies community. It was December of 1999 when I first started to really get into online communities heavily, and it was all because of that game. I've been a Star Wars fan for a long time - even if I've been much less into it lately - and I also have a love for the kinds of games BioWare puts out. So, this is pretty exciting news for me too. While Star Wars: The Old Republic goes back far in the timeline, I almost feel like I've gone back to an earlier time as well, as I get to follow another MMO based on the IP through its development.

I've had a chance to meet - and at the very least see a few GDC sessions from - a few BioWare Austin developers, and based on what I've seen, I think they have the potential to do something pretty neat. Time will tell.