Editing Star Wars: The Old Republic (section)

===Prologue===
Realistically, upon launch it became a formidable rival to [[World of Warcraft]], the largest and most respected MMO ever created. For three months after its initial launch, it gained new subscribers faster than any other game had ever gained, including WoW and Everquest 2. Journalists and reviewers praised it before its launch, telling the public it was the best thing to ever happen to Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. Beta players gushed on every social media outlet they could find, and the pre-order boxes that contained a statue of the Darth Vader flavor of the game (because everything Star Wars has one, don't you know) vanished as soon as they were available. With the flop of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, where [[Blizzard]] had tried to hard to energize the game and simply irritated older players with new lackluster fluff and more already-outdated pop culture references than new Simpsons episodes, it almost seemed that the fate of that game had been sealed.

It seemed inevitable.  This game was going to be the true WoW killer, after years of literally every MMO (including the ill-fated [[Warhammer Online]]) receiving the same praise but failing even before launch to impress. Within ten years, it was said people would forget WoW even existed and younger players would laugh at former hardcore WoW veterans whose game had been dethroned of its place.

The game started strong, with a number of CGI trailers depicting the conflict between the Republic and the Sith Empire. The game actually picks up some twenty years later, where things have simmered into a sort of Cold War between the Republic and Empire.