Seeing the great amount of success that Blizzard's World of Warcraft has achieved, it's likely that the MMO genre is here to stay.  Now, I have nothing against MMORPGs at all.  I've actually played some including Lineage 2 and Guild Wars.  But one thing that worries me is making the next version of a great franchise into an MMO.  Thus is the case with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

It was one of the best RPGs on the Xbox, and later on the PC. The sequel subtitled "The Sith Lords", by Obsidian Entertainment was just as good.

The original KOTOR explored the RPG genre like never before by creating how your character was morally, either light side or dark.  The character development was great, the voice acting was superb, eq2 plat and the story was just plain awesome.  It engrossed me like no other RPG before it.  Now since all the Star Wars movies were trilogies, I was anticipating one more into the KOTOR franchise.  I was expecting a newer, slicker version on the current generation consoles and PC to be announced anytime.  I was expecting something like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in RPG form that provided the quintessential single player experience.

But I soon found out that the next KOTOR game being developed by BioWare is in MMO form, dubbed Star Wars: The Old Republic.  Now what do I think of when it comes to MMOs?  Hours of grinding by yourself or with friends is going to be the main affair, the storyline takes a backseat if there¡¯s any story at all, and fetch quests are commonplace.  It¡¯s usually the standard formula. But one thing that leaves me hopeful for this third entry is the plain fact that BioWare is developing it. They have not yet let me down when it comes to their mastery of RPGs. Mass Effect was truly a cinematic experience and the sequel looks just as good.  Let¡¯s not forget about Jade Empire whose story weaved an intricate tale while having a surprisingly deep combat system.