SWTOR Bonus Quests: BioWare Brilliance or the Ultimate Troll?

If you’ve played SWTOR past around level 20 or so, you’ve probably already encountered these “bonus quests” in the game. Touted as just another example of BioWare’s signature RPG storytelling, some gamers find it more like a massive annoyance. SWTOR is very much about the story and these different story arcs usually take place on the different planets or “zones” in which you play the game.

These world arcs include stories that all tie in to said planet and finish up with a conclusion when you reach the end of the planet and are then sent to another planet. There’s just one little catch… the bonus quests.

They hit you out of nowhere, right when you think you are good and done with the planet. MMORPG.com calls it more of an “ambush”, which is exactly what it feels like to most gamers. You think it’s just one more quest and one more little quest can’t hurt anything, right? You’ll just finish it up and move on to the next planet.

Except that’s not what happens at all.

Instead, accepting this bonus quest will lead to an entire new questline on that planet or world arc. For some players, this is no big deal. Just ignore it if you don’t like it and move on. But for other players, this is a real problem and a major annoyance.

The gamers most bothered by it are the type who want to complete an entire zone and all the quests within that zone before moving on to another zone, like the MMORPG.com writer who says:

“So, you head to the spaceport, satisfied with yourself and ready to go, only to be ambushed by what I can only describe is a troll of an NPC who surprises you with more (and supposedly urgent) stuff to do.”
It continues:
“What you’ll often find is you have enough new stuff to do to probably fill the time it took you to do about one third of the planet you thought you just completed. Surprise! These are what BioWare calls their Star Wars: The Old Republic’s “Bonus Series” quests, or as I like to call them, Star Wars: The Old Republic’s “Troll Series” quests. Why troll series? The way you’re ambushed by these NPCs honestly feels like BioWare designers and writers are trolling you with these things.”
Has BioWare gone too far with their story? Do you agree that these bonus quests or the way in which they are presented are annoying or do you appreciate the extra storyline and the extra opportunity for quests?

Lisa Clark

Lisa has been an avid gamer since she was old enough to hold her first controller and a game writer for more than a decade. A child of the Nintendo generation, she believes they just don’t make games like they used to but sometimes, they make them even better! While consoles will always be her first love, Lisa spends most of her gaming time on the PC these days- on MMOs and first-person shooters in particular.