Story, PVE, and PVP in Star Wars: The Old Republic's newest expansion - Knights of the Fallen Empire.

"A man can have anything... If he's willing to sacrifice everything."

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At EA's press conference during E3 on Monday, BioWare Austin General Manager Jeff Hickman announced the release of the newest expansion for The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire. To quote the official page, "the story follows your player character as he/she becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic."

So far, it looks like that BioWare has SIXTEEN Chapters worth of story content planned for KotFE (With eleven named on the site so far.) But, some in the community asked "What about PVP and End Game PVE content? Where is that?" Well, as Mr. Hickman stated in an article on polygon.com; "I want to be really clear to our fans out there who are deep MMO fans. We're not forgetting about that part of the game either," said Hickman. "We just have a focus right now on the story. We're doing lots of stuff around flashpoints and operations and raid bosses and PvP and that stuff. But it's all about story this year." Of course, as is par for the course when it comes to BWA and SWTOR, they are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. The players who are in the game for the story are excited (And already asking about who the story will play out! :P) But, the PVP and Raiders have various feelings from concern to outright anger that BioWare would focus on story content instead of PVP or Raids. Now, I'm not saying they don't have a right to be concerned, but they are going as bit far with some of their arguments...

WARNING!!! Incoming story and potential personal views off the port bow!!!

Now, many of you I've spoken with online and followed the link I posted on my twitter know that I am what would be considered a... "Fanboy" for the game. But, it may surprise you to know that was not always the case. I'm going to tell you a little story before we get to the meat of this post. Time to take a ride in the TARDIS!

When SWTOR was first announced in '08, I was in eleventh grade, I think. But, I was PISSED that instead of Knights of the Old Republic III, we were getting an MMO. But, instead of harping on it like so many I see on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube, I kinda forgot about it, until a year later when they opened the forums (At least according to the email I have) to try and get into the beta. But, I forgot about the game except for the occasional video posted like the 'Deceived' and 'Hope' Cinematic trailers. But, on June 6th (OR around that time) in 2011, two of my best friends and I were watching some On Demand stuff from E3, and then we saw.... the return of the Sith Empire. And I knew I was going to be playing SWTOR (As a Smuggler!). I got into the beta in October, preordered the CE the next week, and got into Early Access on the 15th of December. And so began my time in TOR, and even with the ups and downs (Especially in 2012), and the occasional break, I've been a loyal sub! And, this may sound corny... but, it made a big impact on my life and what I wanted to do in College and beyond.

Now, I'm sure that many of you are wondering "Why the hell did I read that?" Well... I'm not sure either, It's 3AM, cut me some slack! But, the point is, that as someone who has supported the game for almost 4 years, the release of KotFE will potentially make things better for not only SWTOR, but BioWare Austin.

The focus on story makes sense on two fronts. One; BWA's metrics say that a majority of the players want more story, so they are focusing on that this year (And what they have planned looks pretty damn awesome!), and two; with Episode VII - The Force Awakens on the horizon, it is the "Year of Star Wars", and TOR's strongest aspect is story, so it makes sense to focus on story.

Something that the more... vocal PVP-ers and Raiders aren't seeing is that, the story will bring new and old players in, they'll sub to play the game, and potentially dump money into the game by buying Cartel Coins and buying stuff on the Cartel Market, that money will go back to EA and BWA, and they can use that funding to make new PVP maps and new Operations, and who knows, maybe those new players and old players will make the jump into PVP or Operations. (Please, try not to be complete dicks to those new players. The community is already toxic enough. ESPECIALLY on the official site and Reddit.)

So, calm down, put the torches and pitchforks down, keep the plans for a "PvP Lobbyist Group" on the back burner for now. It's only been three days since the announcement (four if you count the leaked page on Sunday.) and we are already hearing some clarification from the team at BWA about how the story will work, and a blog coming soon about their plans for Ops.

So, it isn't Y2K just yet, but in the mean time! Time to get back to playing TOR! See ya all in game, and May the Force (And Story) be with you!