Galactic Republic

 
Picked this up from E3 last week. Wednesday, day 2, to be specific.
Electronic Arts was giving out this shirt for those who waited in line to see Star Wars: The Old Republic that day. The line was about 3 hours long all day though. Moke, Jared and I got a hot tip from their former work colleagues that they had some shirts available at the very end of the day. So, the three of us jammed over there with a few minutes to go before closing and found someone with shirts available and no line. Unfortunately we didn't get to play the game but we indeed got some shirts.
They had two styles of shirts that they were giving out. This blue one with the Galacitic Republic logo and another that was red and black with the imperial guard logo on it. Moke, lover of all black and red designs, snatched up the evil one leaving Jared and I with the light side ones. This was totally cool with me because I wanted the Jedi one as opposed to the Sith one -despite my nickname yesterday-. Luckily for Moke and I they had mediums, unfortunately for Jared they just said they had a larger size but ended up giving him a medium as well. The actual shirts came in little presealed plastic bags and even had tags on them -high quality stuff for a con shirt and way better than anything else that day-. The printing on the shirt itself is average and spotty but it seems like the texture is there on purpose, in order to make it look weathered, cool and "old".
On the front of the shirt is the "Galactic Republic" logo. It is reminiscent of the Jedi and rebel alliance icons from the old movies and in this game it represent the good guys and the light side of the force. On the back of the shirt, near the neck, is the masthead for the game. It says "Star Wars: the Old Republic" just like one of their previous games "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" which was a single player game of notable success. This new title is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game as opposed to a solo adventure. They've been working on it for a long time now and the hype is reaching critical mass. Personally, I don't think that the gameplay or the character design looks all that amazing but only time will tell once it's released. Though I know some people who are serious fans that are ready for this to be the best game since sliced toast -whatever that means-.
I wanted to wear this as close to E3 as possible. It increases the effectiveness of the recognition. This was a hot ticket item this convention since it had a really long line and that makes it noteable when other people see you in it. Since the game is not out yet it will take a while for people to actually realize what this logo is. It is similar to the old logos but not quite the same so maybe they'll pick up on that. A diehard fan will definitely get it and give me props or someone will just read the back and ask if this game is any good.

Personally I don't think this game has any legs. The franchise is very strong and with the new animated series going there is defiantly an audience for it. The MMORPG has a good pedigree with the studio that it comes from but from the gameplay that I have seen, I'm not hopeful. However, if the experience is even one-fourth as awesome as the fully rendered trailers than it could be amazing.