Star Wars: The Old Republic was a very ambitious MMO that didn’t really pan out the way some fans had hoped. They wanted something in the vein of BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic role-playing games, just expanded into a bigger online adventure. What they got was something closer to World of Warcraft reskinned with Star Wars . James Ohlen said he pitched a plan to eventually turn that around, but Electronic Arts’ board of directors ultimately killed the initiative.

Ohlen was still working on 2011’s Star Wars: The Old Republic before he left BioWare in 2018. He said he felt like a “highly paid, completely useless person” by the end. His decision to leave came after EA refused to pay to reboot the MMORPG.…