"World of Warcraft With Some Star Wars Spray-Painted On": James Ohlen Looks Back At The Launch Of SWTOR And Offers His Past Self Some Advice

Star Wars: The Old Republic continues chugging along, but it never really reached the success many hoped for in the MMORPG. James Ohlen helped set up the then-new BioWare Austin studio which would head production of SWTOR, and recently looked back at his time with the game and offered his past self some advice.

"If I was to go back in time to give my 2006 self some advice it would be, 'Don't try to make the game so long that you can fill up 200 hours. Instead, keep it shorter,'" Ohlen told Rock Paper Shotgun.

He continues, "Everyone wanted Knights of the Old Republic Online, and it felt more like World Of Warcraft with Star Wars spray-painted on it and some BioWare juice thrown in. Even though the Metacritic was pretty good, it wasn't new enough to really take off."

The part about SWTOR feeling like World of Warcraft with Star Wars spray paint rings very true. The gameplay and systems are very similar to those of WoW, and kept SWTOR from really standing out in the crowd. I would argue that the storytelling in Star Wars: The Old Republic far surpasses that in World of Warcraft, however.

Ohlen also commented on the weakness of the MMORPG genre in general, stating "If open-world is the enemy of storytelling, multiplayer is the arch-villain".

In other news, Star Wars: The Old Republic update 7.4 is right around the corner, and there will be a live stream on October 18th at 1:30 CT showcasing the newest SWTOR update. It was announced in an introductory letter from Broadsword President Rob Denton, who has worked on the game for several years including the 2011 launch.

Both Denton and Executive Producer Keith Kanneg talk about supporting the game with new content for years to come, so hopefully they will continue spreading the message that SWTOR development continues under Broadsword, and that we can expect at least the level of content releases we've been seeing over the past couple of years (which quite frankly, could be improved upon).