I’ve been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic lately. World of Warcraft pretty much burned me out on MMOs forever, but I had some old guild buddies who managed to talk me into it. We’ll see how long it lasts. It’s pretty much a stock MMO affair, with a few minor twists, one of which is the ship missions. Somehow, inside an MMO, they managed to cram old style arcade space-shooting – it’s like Starfox: stay on the rails and gun down ships while accomplishing your objective. You can upgrade your ship and it’s surprisingly fun.

It’s simple, though. Like, really, really simple. Too simple, which is too bad, because I was looking forward to trying it out, in hopes that it would be like that old Lucas Arts series, X-Wing. X-Wing is basically Microsoft Flight Simulator, but set in the Star Wars universe. It’s a space dog fighting game.

Whatever happened to X-Wing, anyway? It was one of my favorite games 15 years ago, and they haven’t released a new one since 1999. Popular old franchises are always money-makers, so why haven’t they brought back X-Wing? I would totally build an eyefinity setup to play a remake of that game. I really would.

Still, it’s rare that game companies to actually bring back an old franchise or game without screwing it up. They usually rely too much on fan-service, which stops them from the innovation that made original games really great.

I’d rather not have that happen to X-Wing. So here are the things that X-Wing needs to be an awesome game, in no particular order. This is, of course, on top of all the regular things it needs to succeed: updated graphics, great control, a good UI, a robust PC version (don’t dumb it down for consoles, please).

Online Group PvP Battles: I want to roll into a system with 3 buddies in my squad and raid a space station while making Star Wars Jokes about things coming from behind and why I’ve switched off my targeting computer. Or defend a space station from other players. Or attack a capital ship while warding off other fighters. But the game needs group PvP with a variety of objectives, or maps, or whatever, that support lots of players playing online together. 12v12 dog fights in an asteroid belt. 4v4 Space station defense (one side attacks, one defends). 8v8 Capital ship Attack/Defense. 32v32 Assault on the Death Star. Of course, Deathmatch (Single Player PvP) should also be supported in some fashion.

Constant Gear/Character Progression: There should be a constant progression system – something like a cross between an MMO and Call of Duty – gear (ship upgrades), achievements, unlocks, or something like that. Games that don’t have something like this seem dated.

Single Player and Group Storyline Missions – the campaign should be playable as a single player or a squad of at least 4 players, like Borderlands. I shouldn’t have to explain why this would be awesome.

Those three features would start it off right. Get to work, LucasArts. Stop hinting about it and just do it.