Star Wars: The Old Republic writer says free-to-play transition allows more stories

Story has always been a defining component of BioWare's RPGs, and it was one of the major strengths of Star Wars: The Old Republic. Since going free-to-play, what does the future hold for the MMORPG?

"If anything, The Old Republic's transition to a free-to-play game will create more opportunities to advance the epic story arcs and interesting characters we introduced when the game first launched," lead writer Hall Hood said.

Speaking to Massively, Hood added: "While we don't want to spoil any of the surprises, we can say that players have a lot to look forward to in the future. The war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire is only getting started, and there are powerful new factions rising up to make trouble for both sides."

Hood stopped short of talking about specifics, but he did name a few of the factions that he might be referring to: the Hutt Cartel, the Dread Masters, and the Shroud. It seems like each of these are threats to the players to introduce new enemy types and missions, rather than new playable factions, but you never know. Maybe they'll let us play as a gross space slug.