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Star Wars: The Old Republic: Wearing Your Heart on Your Face
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
In his latest column about Star Wars: The Old Republic, MMORPG.com Community Manager Michael Bitton has a few words to say about a recent thread on our SWTOR forum where the discussion centered around one's face reflecting one's alignment. Check it out and comment below!
A recent thread right here on our Star Wars: The Old Republic forums got me thinking about how I felt about SW:TOR visually reflecting character alignment via the face, which is nothing new for the Knights of the Old Republic series or even many other RPGs such as Fable, as Whilan’s thread notes.
Read more SWTOR: Wearing Your Heart on Your Face.
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Comments
When I played the Kotor games I rarely played darkside, really only twice. I played a male in the first game, which to me ended up looking rather badass. Then in the second game I played a rather attractive redheaded female. By the end of the game she wasn't looking so good. Still kind of badass with the eyes and all, but anything but attractive. Does it bother me? No, it's just one more consequence for actions taken. Only this one sticks with you all the time and can't be ignored. I like it.
So yeah, I think it's much ado about nothing.
Edit: Oh, and even tho I almost always played lightside, I never noticed a glow, sorry. The only glowing was in the character sheet. So again, I see it as much ado about nothing.
I think of it as concequences for your actions which I wish more MMOs would do. You go dark you get ugly. You go light you get the high-pro-glow.
You could think of it as a death penalty or exhaustion type effect. You want to get rid of the effect. Start playing for the other side.
The journey is more important then the outcome
First off, thanks for taking the time to give your thoughts on my thread. But onto the topic
I"m kinda different in the way, i'm i guess what you would call anti-vain. I like my character to look hideous (Guess it makes em unique as everyone likes their characters to look cute or cool or badarsed) so it doesn't bother me much.
As for the changing the face? i guess it would bother some people but usually when your evil you get everything much quicker at the cost of something else. I'm going to guess the bad looks are the cost of being evil to other people.
Not sure how much effect of evil they will have in this game. Fable (as i referred to in my thread) ended up with a guy with big black horns with a little red on the top, flies and red and blackish mist coming from your feet. Fable 2 toned it down a bit and fable 3 even more, in 3 your character got some darkish tones and the eyes were black but other then that it wasn't too bad.
With regards to ToR though. I'm not sure all people will be included, in kotor you always changed due to your alignment but then again you were a force user in every case. Whereas in ToR only half of the classes are force user.
It will be interesting to see where they go with this.
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.
Yeah, I definitely think this should only apply to force users, just for lore and continuities sake if nothing else.
I really liked how you got transformed in the first KOTOR and never actually looked iike Palpatine in the end just scarred and white like Vader in the end of the movies, besides darkside ending was just fun and good thing you could do both actions to turn back to light or dark and change your appearace back, in TOR re-playability of content is there for this reason also appearance in MMO might be different you might even have an option to accelerate corruption by using Sith Magic or been a hideous murder type of guy but the option to "redeem" yourself is what Star Wars is about, I don't understand your concern.
This game looks great along DCUO for me and well LOTRO
I kind of like playing the middle ground, be it the anti-hero or noble villain, but one that uses charisma and subtle power to get through life. I think that if were to play a Force-sensitive character and chose to follow the "darker" path that it should not necessarily make me look ugly because people do like attractive people.
Perhaps I could somehow channel the force to alter my appearance but then I feel like it is going perhaps too much toward a traditional fantasy polymorph spell.
That's my 2 credits.
M
It is a pointless feature when BW still insists on TOR having race-restricted classes.
over at torocast D.E. mentions in an interview that they may add the ability to turn this feature off if testers ask for it or enough people show concern for it on the forums.
D.E. interview
I was always under the impression that the Emp's look had more to do with the Lightening Damage from the big fight, and Vadar looked that way because of the lava and living inside his armor all the time, (just like cave fish) buy a sunlamp for crying out loud!.
Only thing I ever brought away from any of the books etc... was their (Sith) eyes took on an orange color.
This won't be a feature I'm a fan of.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
I like the idea of being able to make your sith character dark and grim and why not ? You are representing the dark side of the force, there should be something within your character that represents that.
As long as its done in the style of KOTOR fine with it I don't want my young sexy Marauder turning into my nan.
You know, there's an easy solution to avoid looking like a sith, don't be evil.
Actions should have consequenses in a roleplaying game, no mather how mm and o it gets.
Kinda ironic given that classicaly true evil is supposed to present an outwardly attractive appearance..... that's supposed to be part of it's lure to the unwary.
The Palpatine thing is probably true to the Star Wars meme (don't know, not really a fan).... but I never really liked Lucas's work anyway.
I always like the meme's that present villians as more sinister but seductive rather then downright ugly (maybe not the grunts/thugs but the main bad guys).
It's certainly the case that it tends to not be the bad guys that look like Palpatine that really give me the creeps in stories/movies.... it's the ones that look like Christopher Walken or Anthony Hopkins.
I liked the system in the two KOTOR games, however there is that little catch. Both games you played a force user. (Even if you tried to pretend you don't :P )
For force users in TOR, I certainly will agree to the obvioius appearence changes. But I think for the non-force user classes, they will require a little bit of differences. It definitly would not make sence to me, to be playing a BH, Smuggler, Trooper, ext. and turn grey and wrinkled.
Pretty much this.
I hated it in Fable, I wanted to make an awesome, evil chick, but when you are fully evil you look absolutely horrid. Why can't you be evil AND attractive?
I'm against it, eventhough I'll most likely bee neutral - good, when I want to go evil, I'm going to go REALLY evil, and I won't be happy if I look like thamighty213's nan.
This is one of the features in the game that i love. I think it should eb mandatory to keep the appearance changes to show your alignment/progression. it would also help to identify which side other players are at a glance, and add more of a true SW feel to the entire atmosphere of the game. Better immersion. If you're afraid of a scary looking toon, then go light side. Pretty simple concept. I'm hoping BW doesn't cave to the few who want to "normalize" the game by making all force sides look visibly the same. Player whining is one of the things that eventually killed SWG.
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OK, my take on this is pretty simple. I LOVE it. I like the fact that my toon will suffer visible consequences for his/her actions. I also am VERY vain about my characters, but it makes sense thematically as well. I would however, support the ability to turn it off for those that don't like it (not that I would use it). I would also support the people who feel that non-force users should not be subjected to it, again for thematic reasons.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
Awwwww
Would you like some cheese with that?
So why wasn't Yoda pretty? Or Count Duku hideous? This is not in line with canon. As others have mentioned, Palpatine's disfigurement was due to lightning damage, and Vader's lava, etc.
Well, Yoda was ancient so...And Anakin Skywalker started to look haggard and dark when he embraced the dark side, before the lava. Palpatine was an extreme case...superbly evil. If they can pull this off, with a true gradation of looks, it would be very interesting. I have no strong feelings for or against this topic, just making a few points.
I dont know about this issue , but otherside they are known to follow the lore.
And yes its only cosmetic , but in a MMORPG where there is almost no consequences anymore .
Whats wrong being a bit less powerfull to pay for your vanity . (light points sith)
Then accepting a more powerfull sith , but totally disfigured .
Sorry this is one of the reasons i like the concept , its not only min maxing .
Its accepting the choices you make , trading off vanity for power .
Those minor aspect can turn people off completly , but its those minor aspect i seek in a MMORPG .
Everybody wants to be mister or miss perfect and most powerfull .
Now comes consequences , and people dont like it ?
I do understand , but maybe its time for a change , you as player make the choices.
And live with the consequences of those choices .
Actually the not being able to get everything and being forced to due with taking one thing over another in my opinion is great. You can be a super powerful sith but you have to give up your looks. If you like your looks too much you then have to give up some power to do that
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.
I think the....Actions have consequences part is great....it's not that really bothers me about it. It's just the particular way they are going about representing the whole light side/dark side thing is just way too Saturday Morning Cartoonish for me..... again probably true to the cannon...but like I said, I always thought Lucas was a hack as a writer.
To me, true evil should present an attractive face...at least outwardly. It's part of it's lure. It's also one of the things that makes evil really frightening.... you can't always recognize it at a simple glance. It can be hiding anywhere.....and often may attempt to masquerade itself as "good".... possibly may even believe itself to be "good". At the same time true good...may not always present an outwardly pristine appearance (The whole "all that's golden does not glitter..." thing). Guess those concepts are more mature then they are really going for.....but Bioware has always seemed better at presenting mature concepts in thier games. This dynamic seems more like it was created by some-one with the dramatic sense of a 7 year old.
As for consequences....the consequences for choosing evil (That's how Lucas presents the Dark Side...though I would argue that' he's actualy a bit off-base) should be in the characters personal relationships.... they should never really be able to trust anyone...even themselves.
That's just my opinion
Being Charismatic and being good looking are 2 different things .
True Charisma is not only looks , it has to do with etiquette and wellspoken or timed phrases .
Cause EVIL is handsome doesn´t make them charming .
True evil always is charming , well look at old DnD you had stats like Charisma almost nobody put into them (Aside from bards and sorceror and even the mandatory paladin)
See now you got that system back in one way or another , want to be powerfull but worst looking jedi , you can , put in darkside points , want to be good looking jedi you can lightside points.
Want to be a all powerfull sith you can , at expense of looks , want to be a evil manipulative good looking sith , you can at cost of power .
Its funny how many are not able to trade off anything for looks , Sorry but i like that old school philosophy nothing is free .
You decide yourself , its looks not charisma in mmo , you can be one horrible looking guy , but still get all the attention.
Cause of the wellspoken or typed language phrases you use .
You can get away , with tons of issue by just being complicated or wellmannered .
Or you can just be plain rude and get the required counter response or seed fear and disgust .
Even the rudest person still get admired on the net , cause they spoke out there toughts .
So many people are willing to judge on looks first , but heck this is the NET , isn´t the meaning that counts, more important then the person look ?
Oh i agree, Evil shouldn't be restricted. What is kinda forcing BW hand is simply that it's still Lucas world, in his world those that fall to the dark side, begin to rot so to speak. Thus they adopted it into knight of the old republic and now into the old republic. It's a combination that BW likes the alignment scale (good vs evil, paragon vs renegade) and since it's lucas' world they wanted to do that as well and since lucas provided that evil becomes pale and withered they made it that way to. It's mostly just to stay consistent with the world lore.
Granted i will give you that evil doesn't always have to be ugly, except of course when it's in star wars.
If you look at their other games like NWN on one side and mass effect on the other being evil or in the case of ME rude does not affect your outward appearence one bit. However in star wars thats not the case. It's simply BW holding true to the lore is all it really is.
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.