The latest news in the world of MMOs is that World of Warcraft is finally coming out with an expansion pack that looks worth while. I haven’t played WoW hardcore since college though I still play casually from time to time. However, I haven’t felt that obsession with the game in years and the debrief Blizzard did at Gamescom was the first time I felt a sense of hope for the game in a very long time. I excitedly tweeted about the whole thing on twitter but as soon as the hype died down, so did my interest. I’m sure once it gets closer I’ll get excited again. But while I’m not as excited about WoW as I want to be, it did do one thing for my gaming needs: I got bit by the MMO bug again and really wanted to get back into that world again.

Fiance to the rescue! Jake had just downloaded Star Wars: The Old Republic and was playing it again and when he caught me looking with interest over his shoulder (a Star Wars MMO?!?! YES PLEASE), he dragged out his old PC, dusted it off, and set it up for me (I’m mostly a console gamer because my Mac doesn’t run games as well). After about 15 minutes of playing, I bought a subscription and I haven’t looked back. I love this game. It scratches all the MMO itches I’ve been feeling including my love of social games – a bunch of our friends are playing too so we’ve already put together a guild and have started running together. It feels like the old days of WoW where I can sign on and know that most likely there’s someone on to play with. I know I’m waaaaaaaaay late to this wagon, but it looks like I’ve jumped in at a good time since the new expansion is about to be released AND I hear that the game has gotten way better in the last year or so from where it had been. PLUS. It’s getting me even MORE hyped for the Force Awakens (YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA I’M SO EXCITED). I’ll have to write a full on Star Wars post later otherwise I’ll get terribly side-tracked.

I’m currently playing a dark-sided Zabrak Trooper named Sh’ehpp (the female troopers are voiced by Jennifer Hale, Voice Actress and Goddess, so of course I named my trooper after my favorite Commander Shepard from Mass Effect), and a light-sided Twi’lek Smuggler named Oolaj’ikki – both of which are on The Shadowlands server if you’d like to join me in my SWTOR adventures. I’ll eventually be making a Sith character but since my entire Guild is a bunch of goodie-goodies, I’m on Republic side. For now…

Honestly I should have known I would love this game. It’s Bioware. And I was a huge fan of Knights of the Old Republic back in the day. AND Mass Effect is my favorite game (I have an N7 tattoo on my wrist!) and Dragon Age was what got me back into gaming on a daily level. I’ll be writing a heartfelt thank you post to Bioware in the future too because they have done so much in my life and I am so grateful to them. For now though, thanks for getting me back into the world of MMOs and for giving me a new addiction in life. Because I needed another one in my life apparently. Y’all, come play SWTOR with me! If you love Star Wars and video games, this is definitely for you.