It is February first and Star Wars the Old Republic (SWtOR) has been out for over a month. Now that the honeymoon with Bioware’s latest game is over with, and the Pr has settled, its time to take a look around the internet at some of the reactions.  This time out we also talk about S.O.P.A., P.I.P.A. and B.Y.O.B.

Above:

There are few famous guitars in the world and it is rare to be able to recognize one on sight.  Anyone who has ever listened to Willie Nelson will instantly recognize his guitar named “Trigger” – it is signed by friends of the great singer/composer has known over the years.  When Willie had problems with the IRS some time back he had to hide Trigger in his managers house (or so the story goes) for fear that the IRS would try and take it.   Having seen first hand an instance where the IRS has tried repeatedly to tax someone who has been dead for years I believe it.

The reason for the guitar is simple.  One of the reasons for the many and varied musical mash-up/segues is musical education – yours and ours.  Recently we were introduced to the works of Robert Johnson.  The more we learned the more we found the many musicians that Robert Johnson influenced with his work after it was rediscovered in 1961….not just blues musicians but musicians of all types.

Subjects:

1. I told you the Sun would finally explode
2. Indie Game the Movie
3. One woman’s heaping pile of dingo dung
4. Star Wars is not a 57 Chevy
5. The Single Player Game Viewpoint
6. Illum – who is at fault?
7. Winning an MMO
8. Who is this Robert Johnson guy?

Articles Cited:

http://ardwulfslair.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/wow-killer-my-ass/
http://ardwulfslair.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/wow-killer-my-ass/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/11/activision-ceo-star-wars-the-old-republic-may-not-make-ea-any-money.ars
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2012/01/doomcasting-swtor.html
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/an-indie-game-movie-will-make-you-cry.ars
http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2012/01/star-wars-the-dead-republic.html
http://noprisonersnomercy.com/2010/04/zen-and-the-art-of-asteriod-mining/
http://www.gamebynight.com/?p=3298
http://spinksville.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/swtor-in-which-bioware-finally-nail-single-player-gameplay/
http://www.youhaventlived.com/qblog/2012/QBlog090112A.html

George:  Hey Steve. I met the perfect woman!

Steve: Really? What’s she like?

George:  She’s a real looker to begin with but that’s not all – not only is she beautiful, but she is intelligent as well. On top of that she’s funny, fun to be with, loves to cook and she’s willing to support us both and pay all the bills!

Steve: She sounds just awful.

George:  Are you insane? She’s everything I’ve always wanted in a woman in more. Your just jealous because your wife left you last year.

Steve: Well….

George:  But I will admit she has one small fault.

Steve: Which is?

George: She snores.

Steve: Really?

George:  Yes.

Steve: How loud??

George: Like a back hoe.

Steve:  Kill her.

Most criticisms I have read about Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR) run close to the same as the imaginary conversation above between George and Steve.  Realizing that one woman’s treasure is another woman’s steaming heap of dung, it is interesting to note that the object of one of the most common complaints about SWTOR is also one of the most common praises – the interactive cut scenes that has made Bioware famous for games like its Mass Effect Series. Some members of the vocal minority are complaining that the cut scenes are like movies with press buttons. To others, myself included, this is one of the most immersive elements of their single player roleplaying  games and one of the most important innovations to mmo gaming in a long time.  The difference seems to be accountable by a factor I have read (and I apologize for not being able to remember where) that veteran gamers who long for what they see as “the good old days” of gaming* can’t seem to adjust to change.

Perhaps some of the more unusual comments on SWTOR come from Terra Nova where author Castranova spends time complaining that SWTOR is not a single player sandbox game like Skyrim, or Fallout 3 and he is absolutely correct…it’s also not a 57 Chevy, a casaba melon or a watermelon falling from a great height.   As one of the readers put it, “These games are entirely different and are predicated on entirely different things. To ask that SWTOR effects the whole world as a whole is darn near impossible when you have thousands of people playing at any given time.” The oddest extension of the comparison above concerns  the ability to have your NPC crew do your crafting – complaining that the market feels dead because “… net monetary proceeds from doing crafting are near zero (labor theory of value works here – zero labor input implies zero profit on sales of things labor produces).” The whole thing falls apart with the fact that the only labor involved in any videogame is button pushing and the ability to put up with mind numbing boredom. That, and the fact I am already making a tidy profit with the same system.

Still, to each his own and anyone who does long for the mind numbing crafting that more established games can offer need look no further than Eve Online.  Players are able to spend hours upon  hours staring at screen doing little more than waiting for their virtual ore hold to fill.  In fact an article I wrote about it earlier, called Zen and the Art of Asteroid Mining can be found here. And for those players who long for games where NPCs stand by mutely while players read a wall of text…well that’s  just about every mmo out there.

The Single Gamer and the MMO

One of the more  unique views of Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR)  I have read comes from Game by Night noting that “SWTOR makes a poor single player game.  Apparently the author feels there is a connection between what he perceives as an outbreak of R. Asshaticus among players and a drop in EA stock. The unique part comes when Chris goes on to explain what typifies the attitude of a devotee of single player games when introduced to the world of mmos…

“As all of these single player gamers’ sign up and take on the world without ever once grouping, they start to realize that damn, this is a really long game. At about 60 hours, it’s become, damn, I’m just skipping this other crap and listening to my class story. Fast forward to 100 hours and, damn… why am I even doing this anymore? I’m not even level 40… and this story is so SLOW.  The experience of playing through those hours varies from class to class, as does the scenery, but the repetitive nature of the side quests is static.” – Game by Night, Chris

Complaining about too much content seems a bit like going to a smorgasbord and complaining there is too much to eat; but it is not the first time I have heard this.  As far as the nature of side quests is concerned, there is only so many ways to uniquely tell players to kill ten womp rats.  However, Bioware’s unique interactive storytelling and environment triggered comments are so involving I rarely notice whether a side quest is repetitive or not.  It should be noted that Chris gives readers some very important advice at the end of his article…

“So this is my advice to help you prevent burnout: Step out of your comfort-zone and  invite people to groups yourself. Get in there and experience the group content. It will remind you that this is an MMO and that people who call the game an sRPG have only been telling half the story.” – Game by Night, Chris

But not every player agrees with the above – Spinks felt that Bioware has “nailed” the single player element of SWTOR.  I found his comment on the difficulty of the mission, versus the importance of the story especially interesting…

“And what’s more, I’m finding that the difficulty supports the storytelling. Not in every case for sure, but the way the single player class quests balance increasing difficulty with increasing story importance has worked really well to draw me in.” – Spinks, In which Bioware finally nails single player gameplay

The date face comes off

But like any other significant other, once the date face is off, and the honeymoon period is over we find ourselves getting acquainted with the real game – The most recent of which is a patch that broke PvP in Illum. Interestingly, while we surely can’t absolve Bioware from any blame in the matter, no one thinks to fault the players who were exploiting SWTOR game mechanics in the first place – the reason for the need to patch pvp at all.

“After Game Update 1.1 went live, we discovered that the Open World PvP area on Ilum was not working as our PvP design team intended. As many of you know, large groups of players began capturing the Ilum control points, then ‘camping’ at the enemy’s base. This led to a very frustrating experience for a number of players who were unable to leave their base and fight back against their attackers. It was not a fair gameplay experience. In addition, some players on the attacking side gained more Valor points than designed for the time they spent in PvP.” – Jeff Hickman, Executive Producer – Live Services

The Beginning of the End

The question remains is what Bioware will do in the long run to keep players involved. Will SWTOR become a “system of inventory management” for which Richard Garriott faulted Blizzard?  SWTOR is also the only mmo of which I am aware, that actually has an “ending” of sorts. In fact Dr. Richard Bartle discusses this at the end of a recent post on SWTOR which can be found here. (excerpt below).

“To cut to the chase, it comes down to this: self-actualization occurs when you accept that the game accepts that you’ve won. In most modern MMOs, the game never admits that you’ve “won” because the developers believe that if it did, players would stop playing and go off to some other MMO instead. Their preference is to keep players around for long enough that an expansion can be built to move the finishing line further away. Players either self-actualize through their own strength of will, or they get increasingly frustrated and drift away, or they become trapped at an earlier stage (typically that of planner/achiever) and keep going until they burn out….Well, SW:TOR has only gone ahead and done it: it’s told players that at the end of their class quest line their story is over. There are other stories, but your main one has come to an end. Congratulations, you’ve won. The question is, then, what will players do next?” – Dr. Richard Bartle

The Fourth Pillar of Gaming

As for me, I have been too busy enjoying what Bioware calls the “fourth pillar” of gaming – Storytelling (the other three being exploration, combat, and progression) and having fun to notice any problems.  And even if the player can’t make a difference in the world, they can change their place in that world…

“And absolutely, we have story arcs, and we have real storytelling with beginnings, and ends, and places to say, ‘Hey, that was great, and time has passed, and things have changed. By the way, here’s that quest that happened twenty hours ago where you totally forgot you screwed that guy, coming back to bite you in the butt, now how are you going to deal with that?’” -  Daniel Erikson, Lead Designer for Star Wars The Old Republic

 

*(for an excellent discussion on the “good old days” of gameing see a recent addition by Syp on Biobreak here.

“We’re not betting the company on Star Wars,” said Frank Gibeau, president of EA Labels , which oversees the Star Wars game. “While it’s a major undertaking, it’s one aspect of a larger strategy to transform EA from a company that sells discs to one that derives the bulk of its revenue from digital games and services.” –Los Angeles Times, Business

If the internet had existed in Abraham Lincoln’s day one of his famous quotes might have gone quite differently…

“You can please  some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but if you want to piss off all the people all the time just try and make an mmo that pleases everyone.”

There was a time I used to think that gamers are a fickle lot. No longer. The truth of the matter is that taken collectively, gamers to whom any variation of an mmo is a hobby are  the most capricious of the lot.  Like virtual junkies whose body builds up a resistance to any drug we take, after 30 days we keep searching for a new fix…a fix which public relations specialists from game publishers are always eager to provide.  But like the story of the elephant and the three blind men what each gamer sees as the outcome will be entirely different.  Ask a million gamers what their perfect game is and you will get a million different answers.  Even an MMO that has a perfect launch (something I believe has yet to occur since Meridian 59 went live) someone will always  be displeased.

The Big Gamble

Around the internet, Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR) has been called Electronic Arts’ “big gamble”.   And while no one outside of EA’s upper echelons truly knows how much SWTOR costs, there is little doubt that there is a lot riding on this particular horse.  Last fall John Smedley  said SWTOR was going to be the last subscription based MMO –  “In my opinion, this is going to be the last large scale MMO to use the traditional subscription business model.” If EA does lose its proverbial shirt by publishing SWTOR, they may not shutter their doors, but it will no doubt have a drastic affect on the video game industry.

What will happen if EA fails at their attempt to turn their company into “one that derives the bulk of its revenue from digital games and services”? What if their new digital download service, Origin, finds that the slingshot they have aimed at that digital giant Steam can’t bring it down? It has only been since September 2009  when Turbine took Dungeons and Dragons online Free-2-play and a year later since Lord of the Rings Online went free-2-play.  Since then game publishers have hopped on the same band wagon, hoping for the same lightning Turbine got to strike twice will strike a third time for them. Will the free-2-play business model be a success? Or will it be a repeat of the rapid rise and even more rapid decline of the “dot com” businesses in the 1990s?

The gamers, the mmo, and the bathwater.

What if happens if the gamble that EA has taken on SWTOR fails? Will the industry follow suit and turn away from service based games and concentrate on the console market?  What happens if the MMO industry finds that it cannot repeat the success of Turbine and Zynga in the long term?  Could the two combine to form a perfect storm? 

Perhaps in our haste to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater every time a new mmo doesn’t meet our exacting expectations we will one day find that there are no mmos to be had – period.

See you online.

Julie Whitefeather

SIDE NOTE

One of my recent favorite quotes from SWTOR:

“If we encounter a Duke or a Countess what do we do? Bow? Curtsey? Wink knowingly?” – Corso Riggs

Ms. Sand Woman,

Bring me a dream,

Make it a planet like Tatooine

Give it some Jawas and droids that are older,

and Cantinas with pilots and soldiers.

Having seen the sights of Tatooine in Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) I can testify to the truth of the assessment of the place by Blaine Christine above.   Who can not have grown up with Han Solo, Luke, Obi-Wan and Chewbaca blasting their way out of Docking Bay 94 and not looked forward to trodding the same sacred sand as Han and Chewie?  And, of course, I had to make sure I did it at least once with my smuggler and big fuzball sidekick, Bowdar.  Having played through Tatooine twice – once on the Empire side and once and the Republic side – I was delighted to find that the experience was different each time.

Between the cantina’s playing my favorite Star Wars tune “Average Brown Wookie” and the intrigue it never disappointed.  One thing I missed was pod racing; and while there are presently no racing pods in the game there ARE swoops. Perhaps in the future we will see swoop racing at least; if nothing else as emergent game play.  The other thing I really was hoping to see was that wretched hive of scum and villainy ,Mos Eisley spaceport.  There were similar settlements and Anchorhead space port.

This area alone made the game worth while for me.  What is more anyone who claims that SWTOR does not have large land masses has never been to Tatooine – it puts the “H” in HUGE.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

“I told you the sun would finally explode” – Paul  Barnett on the No Prisoners No Mercy Show

It never ceases to amaze me the number of people who leap out of the blogosphere’s woodwork screaming at unsuspecting passers-by that whatever particular game is popular with an all too fickle market that it is doomed to fail…and do so at the first hint of any anything they don’t consider optimal performance.  More than once we have been told by Ardwulf  that Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR) is doomed to fail with the odd presumption that in order for it to be a success it must be a “wow killer”.   Remarkably, in a feat that would have turned Nostradamus green  with envy, the first time Ardwulf predicted the ultimate demise of SWTOR was nearly a year before the game hit the shelves,  and without, presumably, so much as access to Bioware’s profit and loss statements.

If a constantly volatile stock market that reacts more to newspaper headlines than quarterly reports sees a slight dip in a game publishers stock, somehow they are once again doomed to failure.  Nearly a year ago Ardwulf assured us all about his predictions of doom for SWTOR, stating “This is not my opinion. This is math.”

But numbers don’t lie…or do they?

Certainly numbers lie, especially when you don’t have all of them.  The practice of making sure they do is called “cooking the books”.  The fact that numbers can easily be made to lie, and do so quite well, is why forensic accountants exist in the first place.  In fact I spend a good portion of my time reviewing “the numbers” that auditors use to see if they are lying in the first place.  The simple fact of the matter is that without access to Bioware’s financial statements including balance sheets, profit and loss/statement of account, and cash flow statements it is not possible to tell if something will or will not be a success.  Yet here we are, less than a month into full release of SWTOR not even three weeks into the first quarter of the year and somehow sectors of the blogosphere seem to feel they  know more about the success of SWTOR than Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello.

Mind you I could care less whether or not Ardwulf’s ass is a wow killer or not, the real danger is that some sector of the gaming public would take as fact what is nothing more than conjecture.  So before you listen to an “armchair ceo” (whoever they might be) assure you any game will be a failure before they have even seen a quarterly report, it is probably best to tell them to stick to predicting that the sun will explode. After all, at least that way they will eventually be correct.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Oh Boy! Star Wars 3d.  Not just the new version of Star Wars where Darth Vader says “nooo!” (ableit muffled), not just blue ray Star Wars, STAR WARS 3D!

Now I can die happy.

Welcome to Show 101!

This week we spend time contrasting Star Wars the Old Republic and World of Warcraft.  After that we discuss evil versus good in SWTOR.  This week we also revisit the subject started by Dr. Richard Bartle in Show 101 freedom to be yourself in virtual worlds.  We finish up the show with a brief discussion on yellow journalism.

1. A day late and 26.95 shorter – Returning to World of Warcraft
2. Cut Scenes in WoW and SWTOR
3. Story in SWTOR and WoW
4. Linear Questing In WoW and Star Wars the Old Republic
5. A very Grinch Christmas in Azeroth
6. It’s my party and I’ll leave when I want to
7. Evil is as evil does -  Evil versus good in SWTOR  (The return of Good Nun/Bad Nun)
8. The freedom to be yourself in virtual worlds (revisited)
9. What is a “Sith” anyway?
10. Yellow Journalism

 Articles Cited:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/13/raph-koster-immersion-is-not-a-core-game-virtue/

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-30-lucasarts-to-take-around-35-percent-of-old-republic-revenue-report

http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1147536p1.html

http://n4g.com/news/907301/physical-copies-of-star-wars-the-old-republic-sold-out-on-origin
via Forbes.com

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/news/gameId/367/showArticle/23086

http://www.mmocrunch.com/2012/01/03/swtor-uk-sales-plummet-after-one-week/

http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2012/01/swtor-sold-out.html

http://torwars.com/2012/01/10/lies-damn-lies-and-statistics-swtor-sales-in-the-uk/

Matt Uleman brought us all some of the best music that has ever graced World of Warcraft before or since the release of The Burning Crusade.  Peter Mcconnell wrote the song “Average Brown Wookie” – the theme that kicks in at 40 seconds is the sort of thing that belongs on stage with the gents from Average White Band and Pick Up Pieces (especially at 2:12 into the song).

The music of people like Mark Griskey, Gordy Haab, Lennie Moore, Will Roget who composed the music for Star Wars the Old Republic (see Gamespot Interview below) immerse that player and evoke emotions like never before.  It has us all turning up the music on the game again.

 In the end, I think one of the composers, Will Roget, said it best…

“It’s more about the experience, the emotiont that I want the players to feel, that the setting will give them.” – Will Roget, composer, Star Wars the Old Republic

TWO’S A COMPANY –  For those of you not in the know, Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR)  has companion characters.  This is nothing new to those of you out there who like stand alone pc games like the Fallout series or Bioware’s own Mass Effect series.  For MMOs, however, it is a relative new idea, handled by Bioware in an innovative way.  Each companion has a back-story of their own (which they happily share with you from time to time) as well as their own set of likes and dislikes. This does have a few quirks in it however.  While it may be “working as intended” it is frustrating to be happily going about my adventures with a companion who is constantly beleaguering me with “I wish to speak with you on the ship”…and after I traipse across the virtual countryside, wait on lengthy loading screens, only to have a message pop up that says “you have to complete more missions before you can do this” when I try to speak to him.

That is a frustrating experience that is all too common. I will come upon someone with a mission and get the same message: “You have to complete more missions until you can do this.”  My first impulse is to ask whether it means my character has to be a higher level or have completed specific missions. Unfortunately, at least so far, there is no way of knowing; and in fact has been both from time to time.

KHEMISTRY – As SWTOR players know by now (and I understand not all of you are) your companion has an “affection” score from 0 to 10,000. What is more, each time you engage in an interactive mission dialogue, you will gain positive or negative points based on what you do as compared to your companions likes or dislikes. As a result, I often find myself redoing conversations to stay on the good side of  my favorite companion.  So if nothing else, it effects game play that way.

But does it have any real effect on the game?  My current main character is a Sith Assassin and her main sidekick is a companion named Khem Val that for all the world looks like a loincloth clad, bald version of the alien from the Predator Movies.  Khem has been bound against his will to the player, whom he considers beneath him (a list which seems to include most of the known universe). Moreover the contempt in which Khem holds the player is an opinion he has no qualms about expressing quite often; so much so, in fact, that he gets on my nerves.  This alone was my reason for attempting to get on Khem’s good side.  So far it doesn’t seem to have worked.

Companion characters certainly do have their use.  Khem makes a halfway decent tank.  The pirate companion you come across next as a Sith Assassin is good at DPS.  And Mako, the companion to my bounty hunter, has saved the character’s butt more than once.

ROMANCING THE WOOKIE – Having reached nearly the end of chapter one in the Sith Assassin’s journey to level 50 I find myself in need of some Republic side goodness…if nothing else to get rid of the taste of all the Sith dark side  badness.  Not wanting to go as far as “Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore” goodness I have settled on my smuggler, already sitting in her space ship, waiting for action. This, of course, means one of my upcoming companions will be a wookie.

But is there a reason to stay on the Wookie’s good side?

Certainly SWTOR companions seem to have more use than Doctor Who’s companions. While the Doctor’s sidekicks seem good for little more than getting into trouble, Bowdarr (the smugglers second companion) will make a fine tank.  But that is something Bowdarr as an NPC doesn’t have a choice in doing.

The SWTOR wiki (http://swtor.wikia.com/wiki/Companion_Character) has an article about companions that claims that a higher affection score will affect crafting success and eventually result in extra missions – so far neither has come into evidence.  The crafting hasn’t affected my game play because it is so incredibly expensive I have avoided it altogether.  While it may be nice to be able to have your companions craft for you (especially useful if you hate crafting) everyone I have come across tells me they are always broke because of crafting.  If that is true, while the structure of the skill system may be fine it seems to be in serious need of balancing.

And as for a higher affection rating resulting in missions? As nice as I treat Khem, answering missions in ways that give me brownie points with him, and buying him presents, all he seems to do is constantly berate me.  What is more, at level 30 all he will do is tell me he wants to talk to me but once we are on the ship he won’t say a dam thing.

GETTING A LITTLE PIXEL – While I have yet to see the general chat channels descend to the level of the infamous “Barrens Chat” (something Wow veterans will remember from days gone by) occasionally it has come close.  From time to time I have read words of young men who feel it is important to share their young fantasies of what I have come to call “getting a little pixel” with their virtual companions.  Occasionally the “flirt” option will appear in your interactive mission dialogue.  If you chose it from time to time (as I have out of curiosity) all that happens is your companion may get jealous and it once resulted in a brief cut scene of a kiss (which was a bit odd considering my character was wearing a metal skull helmet at the time).

HIT THE ROAD JACK…ER…KHEM – So if I don’t engage in crafting because it is too expensive, and Khem seems wont to berate me no matter what I do, there seems to be little reason to gain his or any other character’s affection. My “affection rating” with Khem is close to 4,000 out of 10,000;  the result of having catered to Khem’s whims since level 1.  This not having resulted in any missions it seems that there is no reason to stay on Khem’s good side any more.

Time to give Khem the old heave-ho.

See you online (but not Khem)

Julie Whitefeather

EVIL IS AS EVIL DOES – When I was young I used to hear Annette Funicello repeat “beauty is as beauty does” every week on the Mickey Mouse Club.   For years I wondered what in the world she was talking about.  I realize that I am twisting the phrase into contortions that would make Chaucer* scream in agony by applying my version of it to the Sith Inquisitor class in Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR).  Still, having played the class quests from this character through level 30 started me thinking about some comments that Dr. Richard Bartle made on No Prisoners, No Mercy Show 100 about the decline of Virtual Worlds:

“What’s declining is the sense of awe, and the ability for  people to play these games and be themselves.  Nowadays you can’t  play the game and be yourself. You play the game and you’re constrained by the other players far too much.  The game itself constrains you, it doesn’t let you go where you want to go; it tries to make you go where it wants you to go.” – Dr. Richard Bartle on No Prisoners, No Mercy Show 100

FREE TO BE YOURSELF

I pointed out that I play games not to be myself, but to be someone else as a form of escapism. Doctor Bartle clarified his point at some length (beginning at time mark 1:35:30) – here is an excerpt:

“In the virtual world, when you get there, suddenly you can do anything. You can be anything. So what are you going to do? Well, you can either be as far away from your real self as possible and then try and find out where you are in between. Or you can just go slightly ahead of yourself and see if the real you can kind of catch you up. And when I say ‘you’re real self’ what I mean is the individual that is able to act and think without the pressures that come from the real world, of not having like a back space button.” – Dr. Richard Bartle on No Prisoners, No Mercy Show 100

I thought about this discussion, in relation to some comments that Dr. Bartle had made back in 2008 on his own personal blog regarding the World of Warcraft quest entitled “The Art of Persuasion” – a  quest that involved asking the player to torture a prisoners. You can read Dr. Bartle’s post here and explanation here.   Personally, I think it is a testament to how much influence Dr. Bartle has on the gaming community that his comments draw such attention (and yes I subscribe to his blog).

The characters I chose to portray in SWTOR – and considering I have a background in professional theater it is portrayal – rarely relates to who I am as a person.  I find it interesting to explore a particular character, whether as a writer or a player.   I decided early on to play my Sith Inquisitor, Sasha’Tunn, as dark side as possible.  Along the way, Sasha’Tunn made decisions that I personally would find repugnant.  While some may think it odd to think of a character as a separate entity, when we spoke with author Gail Carriger (author of the Parasol Protectorate series) at Teslacon this last fall she often did just that.

The outcome of several decisions were startling to say the least. But the fact that such a wide range of decisions are even possible makes me feel as if SWTOR is a game where you are free to be who you want to be, even if it isn’t yourself. As one developer pointed out, light side and dark side is not a matter of which faction you are on.  So while a popular meme may say “come to the dark side, we have cookies” a player could just as easily be a dark side Jedi Knight. After all, that is exactly what Darth Vader was – a fallen Jedi.  As one SWTOR developer pointed out, Darth Vadar was never a Sith. Still, after talking with R.W. Harper, a name long time listeners to the No Prisoners, No Mercy Show will recognize, I realize that he is correct about faction choice.   The Republic is not necessarily “good” and the Empire is not necessarily bad.   Just like in the real world, there are always politicians in positions of power the do things the average citizen believes is just wrong in no uncertain terms.  As all Star Wars fans know, the Republic, and their horde of while plastic armored troopers are eventually lead by a Sith Lord and Darth Vadar.

MORALITY PLAY

“One of the things that’s really interesting about writing for interactive fiction is, what you’re trying to do is make the best player experiences and choices in each place. So the sooner and harder you can make those choices, you can make the player define themselves as a character, the more they take ownership of their story and the more affection they have for their character.” – Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer, Star Wars the Old Republic

The above quote from a Gamespy interview with the lead writer of SWTOR brings home one of the more interesting innovations of the game.  Never have I been faced with such a wide range of choices as a player.  As many of you out there have already found, those decisions do indeed affect outcomes in the game; more than once decisions made the difference between simply walking away from a completed quest or having to face down an elite boss. So whether you are being yourself or somebody else, Star Wars the Old Republic, in many ways, is a morality play

And who knows, perhaps I really am reincarnated from a member of the Spanish Inquisition (nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition).

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

* In later years I discovered that the phrase originally goes back to a story by Chaucer (c.1387) entitled ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’.