I'm not sure what you mean by, "an RPG with MMO elements"--wouldn't that make it, erm, an MMORPG?

What I do know is that Bioware is going to try to tell a story with this game, knowing full well that the majority of MMORPG players still just skip over all of the in-game text and accept their quests without knowing why they're going on those collect-a-thon fetch quests. They want people to get envolved, and to have a serious investment in the world and not just to be in it for the pursuit of loot. Those are lofty goals, but if anyone can do it.. right?

I think there's a good shot that this might shake up the MMORPG world quite a bit. Other developers have been offering more of the same, for the most part. For all of the different entries into the genre, we see less and less variety or innovation. Warhammer Online promises extensive realm versus realm battles; Age of Conan has a neat guild castle/town siege element.. but for all of those improvements to the genre, everything still just feels like EverQuest to me. That's no complement.There are other games out there that are as good, if not better than World of Warcraft. One thing that seriously disappoints me in this genre (or culture, you could go so far as to call it that) is that designers seem to have really given up on the concept of truly persistent worlds.

Way back when, a little game called Ultima Online did persistent worlds better than any modern game since. The only exception might be Star Wars Galaxies, which is (was) basically just an improved version of Ultima Online 2. When LucasArts bought EA Austin (?), they got all of their work on UO2 along with it, which was ultimately adapted into SWG.

I think SWG is (was) perhaps the best MMORPG ever made, but since Lucas and SOE have managed to murder it, adapting its awesome systems into another Every-Quest clone, I suppose it's time for a new Star Wars MMORPG. Who better to shake things up than the developers of the best single player Star Wars RPG?

I don't think anyone is supposed to be impressed by a game they haven't even seen yet. I know people make up their minds, for better or worse, before they even play a game.. but come on now. I'm a bit surprised Bioware isn't ready to show us something, but I'm patient. I've been waiting for news concerning their MMORPG for quite a long time.. but now that I finally have some real Dragon Age information to sink my teeth into, I can wait a little more patiently.

I can't believe anyone expected Bioware to make another single player sci-fi RPG, when they're not even half way through Mass Effect yet. If Lucas went through with another KOTOR, there's a good chance it would have been handled by someone else all together, like Obsidian, perhaps. This strikes me as good news.

I dunno.. I guess I was excited about Dragon Age just from hearing about the details they released before showing anyone the game. And I'm excited about the concept of this too, but I'm not impressed.. yet.I've heard of it.. but don't really know anything about it. They have a website:

http://www.switchbladegaming.com/

There are some games that I can't imagine playing with a gamepad without official support, but hey, if it's that big of a deal.. I guess that's one solution.

I actually sympathize greatly with that position, that multiplatform games are good for most of the parties involved, especially the gamers. And you're correct that in most cases, a console game outsells its PC counterpart by quite a large margin (although this certainly is not always the case). The problem here, and increasingly with the Playstation as well, is that high profile exclusives are important to secure the future of the platform in general.

Now I'm not especially worried that PC gaming will disappear all together (ever), but, it does concern me that in most multiplatform PC games (especially in simultaneous releases), the PC version absolutely does suffer as a consequence. In most cases, I prefer that the game ships first on one platform or another, so that the experience can be properly adjusted to the console, or PC.

If for example, Mass Effect had shipped day-and-date with the 360 version, I doubt it would be a very compelling PC port. Likewise, if Dragon Age shipped day-and-date with the PC version, we'd either have a completely gimped PC game, or an unplayable console game.Nerd girls love Star Wars.