You know what the problem with MMO Industry is? They make shit. Unbelievable, unremarkable shit. Now I'm not some grungy wannabe fanboi that's searching for escapism through a haze of bong smoke or something. No, it's easy to pick apart bad coding, short-sighted development, and a purely moronic stringing together of words that many of the studios term as "voice acting". No, I'm talking about the lack of immersion. Immersion; not a pervasive element in today's modern American game development vision. Take The Old Republic, for example. Arguably Bioware's best work, short of Mass Effect and KoTOR Part 1, of course. Masterpiece of beta testing, easily Bioware's best. The cinematography, the graphics, the storyline, all top-notch. But... they didn't push the envelope.
Now what if in deep space, the smuggler REALLY wanted to pilot the ship? What if - now this is the tricky part - what if he started jump to lightspeed right away? No mercy, no quarter. "Get out of my way or the Whaladon-class container ship gets it side full speed." Bam, crash! What, still no player created chaos? Come on! How many transport freighters splattered across a galaxy would it take to have the Republic reverse its policy on smuggling situations? And this is 5000 BBY; there's no Vader, there's no Palpatine, there's no... there's no Empire! Now fast forward to A New Hope, time of the rebellion, same situation. How quickly would the Galactic Empire make a frenzy over this? In a matter of hours, it'd be biggest story from Hutta to Corelia! Ten Kessel Runs, twenty, thirty; relentless, bam bam, one right after another, all caught in high-def, computer-enhanced, holovid recorded. You can practically taste the glitterstim spice. All for what? More devs, delayed launch? A couple of million dollars more so success would be assured?
I don't think so. Just a thought. I mean, it's not within the realm of conventional gaming... but what if?