SF MMOs are basically just a lot of dingy buildings and spaceships.

[snarp]

Sometimes with unexciting monsters/dudes with dull color palettes inside them. Sad, cynical people are hanging around nearby saying, "kill the monsters, NOT THAT IT WILL HEAL MY CRUSHED SPIRIT."

I guess this is how SF in general works now, and it's natural to expect it to extend to the MMOs. But shouldn't there be, like, at least one that's actually fun? It seems really screwed up to me that even the Star Wars MMO is just an endless march of woe. For Christ's sake, it's the series about a doofy farm boy having laser swordfights on spaceships and hanging out with cute puppets.

In the popular consciousness, has space just become a font of endless disappointment? There's no sense of exploration and nothing's beautiful, it's all just brainwashing, environmental devastation, and war. It's not even didactic, just resigned.

Comments

[smurasaki]

I have mixed feelings about Bioware deciding to make Star Wars: The Old Republic a black vs black conflict. ... Actually, scratch that. I'm glad they didn't make it a white vs black conflict, because that would be a problem for playing on the side of the Empire, but I wish they'd gone with more a gray vs gray thing. Making both governments BAD makes the over all world, well, as you note, less than cheery.

Despite that, I think that the Agent (which can even end somewhat optimistically) and Smuggler stories are pretty classic fun spy or adventure fiction, despite the background universe's issues. I've also heard that the Sith stories (of all things) can be optimistic if you play them Light Side.

Oddly, I'd even say that the Agent story plays out as if it -is- a gray vs gray conflict, which makes it sometimes clash with the overall story a bit. I don't know why they just didn't go with two opposing sides that were imperfect but not completely evil.

And, yes, perhaps more interesting planets and fewer city-planets. And fewer toxic wasteland planets.