NowGamer Previews SWTOR

NowGamer have posted a preview of Star Wars The Old Republic, asking "Can BioWare topple World Of Warcraft with its Star Wars MMO?". It is more about popularity of the MMO rather than any game features or game play impressions.

The focus of the article is how will SWTOR compete against WoW, along with some thoughts on the Free-To-Play model.

Writing on his blog, popular MMO commenter Wolfshead asks, “Outside of killing monsters and taking their stuff, what else is there to do in WoW that is meaningful and of any consequence?”
This, perhaps above all else, is where Old Republic is best placed to take advantage. Though the bare skeleton of the game is very much in the WoW vein, BioWare has included many of the concepts that Warcraft players have been requesting for years, including ownership of a living space (in the form of the player’s own ship) and true role-playing elements, directly inspired by BioWare’s single-player RPGs, that enable the player to have an impact on the world around them.

 The F2P thing is interesting, clearly Bioware think the Star Wars license is enough to make people subscribe, personally I'd have to agree with them. They have dodged any questions about micro transactions however, which makes me thing some sort of "cash shop" is inevitably coming.