Story in an MMO? As if!

New developer blog for The Old Republic! Instead of patch notes or game balance, we get more of what we love in Bioware's MMO - story elements, as told by one of the writers, Charles Boyd. Minor spoilers if you want to go into the new content blind.

Three new areas have been opened to all players, and the first is on Corellia - the Black Hole. But instead of being sucked into a vacuum from which your body is stretched and hung in perpetual timespace limbo for decades, you must work to claim the area for your faction for its valuable hypermatter, crucial starship fuel. But in your way is a corrupt Corellian councilor, who seeks to manipulate both sides for his own gain.

The second is the Lost Island Flashpoint, on Kaon, where a rakghoul plague has broken out. But the creator has learned how to spread it to any other species - or planet - and you are tasked with hunting him down. The third and final new area is on the planet Denova, with Operation: Explosive Assault. Its name is indicative of the content, as an explosive material is being contested. Mercenaries and Imperials have combined forces to work with - strangely - the Republic and the Empire. But what's going on behind the scenes? There's more to this than it seems.

No word yet on when 1.2 drops, but with the sheer volume of content they're adding - including interface changes, most notably - this is a big update to everyone's favorite galaxy far, far away.