Assassin's Den Musings: KOTFE Experiment

Welcome, my beautiful freaks, to the Assassin's Den!

Today, I want to talk about the storyline that SWTOR has dealt with for the past three years; the the KOTFE experiment.  Way back on October 27, 2015, SWTOR dropped Knights of the Fallen Empire, the third expansion to the game, focusing on the introduction of a third faction to the SWTOR storyline, which came to an end with the Nathema Conspiracy in May 3, 2018, with a return to the Republic Vs Empire storyline on December 14, 2018.  That means the story has focused, for almost 3 years, on the story of Valkorian and his children, only tying it back to the main SWTOR story through the fact that Valkorian is another identity of Sith Emperor Vitiate.

Now, KOTFE was an experiment for Bioware; they wanted to see if people would like moving the focus away from the standard "Jedi vs Sith" concept that Star Wars is all about, and while it wasn't a bad story, it wasn't what people wanted.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people who like KOTFE and its continuation of the story, KOTET.  Personally, I say that by itself, it's a good story.  It told an interesting narrative, and didn't apologize for being different.  Bioware also tried something different with KOTFE, focusing heavily on story and introducing new chapters on the story on a monthly basis from the end of the first content drop on October 25th to the end of KOTFE in August of 2016.  They used that 10 month period to see how the fan base would take to that kind of storytelling, and unfortunately, it was met with a mostly negative response. And that is why KOTET was released as one lump sum of chapters to round out the story of Valkorian's family. 

However, this did not mean Bioware was done experimenting.  They moved back toward a multiplayer focus, which gave me little to do for months at an end, with Iokath leading into an Operation focus, introducing new bosses on a monthly to bimonthly basis, finally finishing with the operation at the time of the release of the final boss during 5.8, with the Traitor storyline that weaved through Crisis on Umbara, Traitor among the Chiss and Nathema Conspiracy ending the KOTFE experiment by wiping Zakuul's importance from the board with the destruction of the Eternal Fleet and the Gravestone, leaving the war between the Republic and Empire to begin once again come December 14th, 2018, which will lead into the 6.0 expansion next year.

Now, obviously, the experiment of KOTFE failed; people would rather have the narrative focus on the Republic and Empire, and they'd rather have both single player story and multiplayer content in equal measure.  And as I've heard in the game, they'd rather not have SWTOR follow on World of Warcraft's coattails and do pretty much the same thing they were doing at the time? I don't know how true that is, because I don't follow World of Warcraft, but I digress.

So, what can the devs learn from this? Well, they need to balance single player story with multiplayer better. During the KOTFE expansion, people complained about a lack of new multiplayer, and during the KOTET expansion, people complained about the long stretches without story.  And while you're never please the entire fanbase all the time, doing so will please the most people. Second, make sure our choices matter in the end.  The main complaint I hear about KOTET is how it all didn't matter in the end; because while choices regarding characters certain characters carried across it all, in the end, it was all reset back to basics.  And while that's fine when it comes to them taking the story back in the direction the started with, it meant that nothing we did in KOTFE and KOTET ultimately mattered. The only thing they can really do now is for them to make the ability to choose the faction you support at the end of Nathema Conspiracy to matter. I would love to have, say, my Republic Double Agent Imperial Agent be allowed to openly support the Republic now if she wants to, instead of being locked in with the Empire.  That alone would make your choices in KOTFE and KOTET matter in the long run; you're no longer beholden to your starting faction.

In the end, I don't fault Bioware for the KOTFE Experiment. In the end, you have to try new things to remain successful in any storytelling medium, even if you do bring things back around to the old status quo, because sometimes, those changes stick.  And when those changes stick, you did something very good and very memorable. There are reasons why, to use comic books as an example, Geoff Johns Green Lantern run is so beloved; he wasn't afraid to shake things up, but he did so in a way that expanded on what was there and made it better. But if he'd have been afraid of trying something new, he never would have become the Chief Creative Officer over at DC before stepping down in 2018.

So Bioware? Keep trying new things, but don't lose sight of what makes the game good and profitable.  Because sometimes, shaking things up can be a good thing.

But until next time, stay beautiful freaks!