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Star Wars: The Old Republic: SWTOR Dark Side or Light?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In today's Player Perspectives, MMORPG.com's Isabelle Parsley is beginning to consider how she will play Star Wars: The Old Republic. Isabelle wonders whether to choose Light or Dark side when she first logs into SWTOR and a few thoughts about the overall good vs bad thing going on. Check out Isabelle Parsley's Player Perspectives and then leave a couple of comments.
The problem with MMOs these days, however, is that faction decisions aren’t based purely on lore and a player’s personal choices. SWTOR has raised some interesting debates lately among my friends and acquaintances, and within the guild I’m likely to be playing the game with – but what we’re discussing isn’t so much the lore as what all the other players are likely to choose. Some of my friends and acquaintances are determined to go Empire because they foresee another WoW Alliance/Horde effect, where everyone starts off wanting to play the pretty/good guys. The unspoken implication is that only the smart people, the really good players, will choose the ugly bad guys.
Read more of Isabelle Parsley's Player Perspectives: SWTOR – Dark Side or Light?
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Comments
I have played Tie Fighter and that made me love The fun toys of the Imp's alot, flying Ties, squints(T/E), T-A's, Defenders and Gunboas was fun. Sigh no love till 12/20
My friend ended up choosing which side we will be playing since I choose last time. In this case we are playing Empire.....as light sided characters. I am wondering since everyone looks more or less the same, as in there are no ugly races, and you can be an evil dirt bag on either side, if it will effect which side the so called "skilled" players pick. From what I've seen people still believe that Empire is going to be where all the server firsts are, but meh who cares, I just want to play my Imperial Agent.
Actually the charcter classes decided my faction. As for my lightside/darkside alignment I will probably be pretty grey as I plan on just doing what feels right for my character at the time.
Kendane, there is an option to allow your chacter to change appearance the more evil or good he becomes, think Fable
I'm a paladin at heart so light side was/is a no brainer for me, but that won't stop me from dabbling in the dark side every once in a while...
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
In the case of TOR, faction means less to me than class. I want to play BH first and foremost, although I really prefer the Republic and am no good at playing evil. But since in TOR, I can be on the "evil" side and still play a good guy, the choice for me is predicated on class.
After my BH I plan on heading to the Republic side, because I always prefer the "good" guys.
BTW, your reasoning that everyone plays the good guys did not hold up in Warhammer or Aion. In both of those games the "dark" side populations heavily outweighed the "light" side and led to some unfortunate game imbalance. ( Save us from dual faction teeter-totter TSW, you're my only hope).
I'm with you on that. I'm not followed TOR at all religiously, but what I'm hearing does seem to suggest that you can be a dark side jedi. Isn't jedi, by its very nature, light side?
I'm undecided what I'll be. I'm rather taken with the smuggler, yet I like the idea of being a nasty, child-killing (j/k...bad taste?) sith. My new MMO fondness is for casting damage doers and the healing/lightening sith (class names not on the tip of my tongue at the moment) sounds right up my street.
That cinematic (that I've only just seen) made me want to be a smuggler even more, but also a nasty, back-stabbing sith.
.
I am going to play a Sith to begin with. In my opinion it is really the first time we get to play "normal" Sith / Dark Siders who are not going to go over to the light as part of the story. We can be honorable or sinister, cruel or kind, but in the end we will remain Sith and be loyal to the Empire. So that seems pretty exciting as an idea.
Just My 2 Lunars
I will play the inescapably cliche' justice league superhero good guy. For a couple of reasons. But primarily because the role of self-centered, nacissitic, sociopathic, un-empathetic ass-hat is well filled online (and truthfully in the real world as well). I just can't stomach another one even virtually. I am so diametrically opposed to the "Survival of the fittest"/"Culling of (who I decide is) the weak" philosophies that I can't, even in play, abandon my "Golden Rule". Even simple play in a game can be practice (and lets not forget plenty of people take it more seriously than just play). I honestly do worry about the players that consistently play the bad guy every time. What makes them long for that personality.
What I think is one of the more iteresting choices for me though is the Light-side Jedi vs Light-side Empire. Being good when the surrounding pressure demands it seems less worthy than being good when the surround pressure demands that you do evil for the sake of your own survival. The later character would definatly have to be more idealistically commited to stay good in that environment. I honestly the think the Light-Side Sith is the the more idealised hero in this game.
Powerful you have become, the dark side I sense in you.
This article kinda bothers me about the pure black/white thing and 'people needing to put labels on everything...
THIS for starters IS NOT TRUE for a 'healthy' brain. Yes, I mean yours! Regular people are as black/white-minder as stated above, but can also see all shades of gray in the spectrum.Me on the other hand do see things more black/white than others because I have Asperger's Syndrome, and through time (42 now) I have learned to 'accept' the 'regular behavior' to see the shades of gray.
So, question remains why MMO's, books, movies and name all other 'works of art' use this black/white (good/bad or whatever you want) stigma. I think the answer is quite simple. It's very easy to see these extreme stereotypes when they're played before you. Why else is it in US movies that children are NEVER the victim of an evil act (unless they're the subject of the plot, which is rather rare). Simply because children are still supposed to be 'innocent' (read: GOOD - not meaning Damien in the original The Omen trilogy movies though
) and thus can't be harmed by evil.
Same thing goes for the games (weather it's a single-player game or MMO). Players want to see the clear difference between factions. It doesn't matter if it's either Horde/Alliance, Light/Dark side of the Force or just Good/Bad. Players want easy to comprehend goals that justify the reason for their actions. Things like in most plays (movies, books, theater) handed out to us, and a clearly separated faction system provides this for them.
Then the question why people would choose 'good' or 'bad' in a game. I think two possible answers can be given to that and both are rather contradictional...
1. People play the 'side' that appeals most to them because it reflects their real life.
2. People play the 'other side' of their personal self to enjoy a difference from daily life (these are mostly the role-players).
Yes, I admit that there are also people who'd pick the 'strongest' side (Aion had a flaw there I heard), but this has nothing to do with psychology on a black/white spectrum, but more with players that are power-hungry
For me there is one more thing to say:
First thing that still bothers me the most is that because of my 'handicap' I should be willing to play faction-based MMO's, simply because my 'handicap' sees things overly black/white. Even more, I should always play 'good' side in this concept. Truth is, I despise the fixed (black/white) faction system and play rather (political) sandbox MMO's than a faction-based themeparks.
I have a strong feeling that I will be playing through all 8, but my friends are going Sith, so my first will probably be the same.
I really think you have got this the wrong way around. The empire will be the populous faction with republic being the underdogs.
Times have changed from people wanting the good looking guys, they seem to now want the bad ass characters. This as someone above mentioned was the case with Warhammer and Aion.
So far on the official forums there is an imbalance in favour of empire and I have read that nearly all the major PVP guilds are going empire as well.
Guess we will have to wait and see where the casuals go but I'm thinking they'll be heading for the cool looking black cloaks, red lightsabers and lightning.
Personally I am with you in I find it hard to play an evil side, but I also want to have Blizz as a companion and that means going empire. This is gonna be a tough decision.
Made a blogpost on this subject 18 months ago. I think BioWare makes an error by pinning one to either side because of character creation choices. I'd much more appreciate it if you'd roll 'good' (or 'bad') and the choices you made throughout the game would make you neutral to either side or even flip side.
About the 'Jedi is light' comment, I can be short... Learn to role-play as I did when I was young playing Dungeons & Dragons. Yes, we made an anti-paladin (paladin of an evil diety) as well as a 'good' vampire (that was way before 'Interview with a Vampire' was shot). So IMO, one can be a dark-Jedi as well. Just not sude if BioWare was going to allow 1000's of those in their game though
Normally Jedi are light sided by nature, but it does happen ever so often that a jedi will fall to the dark side, but not enough to really become sith and they are labeled and probably your character (through certain action you take in the game) will be labeled as a fallen jedi or Dark Jedi
It's not common, but it does happen, especially around this time considering we aren't that terribly far from exar kun or Raven time period where jedi being forced to the dark side or falling to it is very very common.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Funnily enough, I think the exact opposite was the case when it came to the Alliance/Horde debate in WoW. There's always been a solid rabble of folks who praise the Horde as being the "superior" and more "bad-ass" faction while the Alliance were the "nerdy" and "boring" faction. Heck if you visit the WoW forums even today you still see the occasional thread made by a Horde poster denouncing Blood Elves and how they "ruined the bad-ass image" of the Horde. Just goes to show how easily some people can wear their insecurities on their sleeves....
I personally like to consider myself a good guy at heart so naturally I'm always drawn to the good-aligned characters/factions in video games but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy playing as the darker side/bad guys either. I did a lot of acting up at college and I'll be the first to admit I had the most fun getting to play villains.
There's nothing wrong with playing roles you're comfortable playing but branching out of your comfort zone can be a fun experience too.
It's not that people want to blur that line. The line is already blurred in the lore. As people have stated, a Jedi can fall to the dark side, but stil not be considered Sith. Also, Sith civilization has to survive, so it could never be pure evil, it would never survive.
I think the mistake that some people make is saying either side is good or bad. Neither "side" is good nor bad, but the individual people on either side are good or bad.
Ah... Love the black/white' thing here ;-)
Hypothetically... You're HUMAN and go to the Jedi academi. You make it to Jedi-Master and then something happens and you're drawn to the dark side big-time... Does this mean your DNA will alter from HUMAN to SITH..? Don't think so. You're still human, are a Jedi and in league with the dark side of the force. Oh wait - DARK-JEDI? ;-)
About the anti-paladin... Read the (Dungeons & Dragons) description of paladin: "a holy warrior and defender of the faith". Who ever said that every paladin MUST be lawfull-good (AD&D alignment-system). Would this mean that an evil god has no defenders or warriors of his faith? Also, that alignment system should be seen in a matter of perspective. Do you really think that followers of an evil god see themself as evil? I highly doubt it! It's more a representatation of our (Western) political & social believes...
Tht adds so much clarity to this debate about jedi and sith, people often want to associate bad with dark and good with light, but if we did that all black people or selfish people would be bad and all white people or giving people (think self sacrifice) would be good. And that is just not the case 100% of the time.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Who is right and who is wrong is all dependant on your point of view.
- Count Dooku