Katrina Johnson

Please do not read this post if you intend to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). There's a fantastic moment of game narrative that caught me completely by surprise, and I would hate to spoil it for you. Click here to skip to the previous post.

However, if you have played KOTOR, please read on and feel free to share your own thoughts.

On a seemingly average Tuesday, I had an hour or two to kill before class. Too restless for TV, I turned to my favorite pastime: gaming. I booted up KOTOR with the goal of getting through a lengthy quest on Korriban.

An hour later, I was deeply engrossed in the game. The seemingly ordinary task on Korriban had turned into a rather interesting quest concerning multiple tombs in the Valley of the Dark Lords. By the time I left Korriban, I had met a host of interesting characters, from the ghost of a Sith lord to a droid that was hyper-sensitive to sounds.

As I flew to the next planet, I was shocked to find my ship pulled into a tractor beam. Suddenly, we had been captured and our entire fate was dependent on one character. I had to play solo to free my fellow adventurers. This new quest sounded quite fun, so I decided to play a little longer, foregoing my usual makeup routine.

No sooner had I rescued my characters than further developments unfolded, and I found myself bargaining for more time. I resolved to buy food instead of taking the time to make a sandwich. I worked my way through the level, searching each room and taking out the enemies. I had just beaten a boss and was running to my ship. Nearly home free, I was convinced I would stop once I had reached that safe point.

Then it hit me. It was possibly the biggest OMG moment in the entire game. Darth Malak had stopped me and mocked me with a grave truth: I was Darth Revan, the other half of the sinister pair that I had been fighting the entire game. My mouth dropped open in shock. It was simply brilliant.

I continued through the conversation, clicking through the dialogue with a stupid grin on my face. The writers had fooled me with one incredibly clever twist. I was thrilled.

Riding on this high, I suddenly noticed the time and had to race out the door and drive to school, still in shock. I ran into horrible traffic and was late to class, but I didn't care. I had just experienced one of my greatest moments in gaming. Fortunately, I was driving to a game design class full of people who would understand, or so I thought.

"I saw it coming," claimed one of my friends. How could it seem so simple to him and yet so brilliantly hidden to me? As I talked with him, I began to see how I had assumed that Revan was a male from the beginning, so it never occurred to me that my female character could be the same person. Even though Revan was carefully hidden in cloaks, my assumption had allowed me to be taken completely by surprise. He had played as a male character in the presence of roommates who dropped hints now and then.

Fantastic OMG moments in games can seem like pure genius when set up properly, but games aren't played in a vacuum. Gamers form a community that seems to thrive on rumors of the latest game and fans love to drool over the newest trailer. In a game development setting, some employees pick up games as soon as they come out and avidly discuss the finer points the next day. If you wait until the price drops, you will likely overhear gossip that spoils the delicate secrets of a game.

KOTOR's big reveal was incredibly satisfying for me because it caught me completely by surprise. Playing a game long past its prime kept me shielded from the spoilers and blissfully ignorant of its amazing twist. In a culture that thrives on the rapid spread of knowledge, I hope that writers continue to weave in twists that catch players off guard. It's the OMG moments that make the other 10-30 hours worthwhile.