I'm rather enjoying SWTOR. I'm slowly making my way up. My Imperial Agent (Sniper) is level 27, and has been a lot of fun.
This blog is probably going to have a lot of SWTOR posts in the near future, mostly because it's the new hotness and because--for all that it is a WoW clone--there are some very interesting differences between the two games.
Normally, I don't roleplay at all in MMOs. In fact, I've gone on record as saying that roleplaying is irrelevant to MMOs. But I find myself assigning personalities to the characters I make in SWTOR, and using that to determine which choices I make in conversations. I'm usually Light-side, but it's interesting how much variation there can be.
Imperial Agent - pure Light-side for the greater good of the Empire. Absolutely loyal to the Empire, but feels that Light-side choices brings order to the Empire, as opposed to the chaos of the Sith. This works astonishingly well with the Imperial Agent storyline so far.
Sith Inquisitor - mostly Light-side. Is snarky and insulting towards the pompous, arrogant Sith, but respectful to those Sith worthy of respect and to the lower orders of the Empire.
Republic Trooper - again, mostly Light-side, but will go Dark Side to foil the Republic's enemies, both foreign and domestic.
Jedi Knight - la belle dame sans merci. Again, Light-side for most choices, but does not show mercy to defeated enemies, and kills them instead. Follows the principle that Batman should have killed the Joker, rather than imprisoning him in Arkham Asylum, as the Joker will inevitably escape and kill more innocents.
It's actually kind of surprising how many Dark-side points the last will get you. I'm running about 2-to-1 Light-side to Dark-side points.
I'm really enjoying my Sith Inquistor being absolutely evil. Didn't have enough time to do the other toons.
ReplyDeleteI listened to an interview with the lead writer the other day and he actually said that they were approaching many aspects of the game from a pen-and-paper roleplayer's point of view. It's very apparent in the flashpoints too... nothing like everyone making their light/dark side choice and then having people bicker about whether whichever choice won the roll was a good or bad idea. :P That's actually the closest thing to a classic RPG scenario that I've seen in a modern MMO...
ReplyDeleteI also find a sudden lure of role playing. What I find annoying, though, is when the short text given to a conversation choice doesn't map well to what's actually being said. I'll aim for something non-committal and end up making a threat.
ReplyDeleteI actually like the fact that what you pick to say and what is said can be a surprise. Most of the time I end up lmao.
ReplyDeleteThis kind of stuff regarding the whole Light Side and Dark Side mechanic in SW:TOR is the reason that I wish I had some sort of PC available to me to give the game a try.
ReplyDeleteI play Warcraft on a MacBook, so unfortunately I don't have the chance to play SW:TOR at the moment.
Mercy is most definitely a Jedi trait, so it's not surprising.
ReplyDeleteI've been enjoying the game very much so far.
While I think roleplaying is also secondary to gameplay in a well designed game you shouldn't be able to notice a difference.
ReplyDeleteFor example I played a Blood Elf hunter in WoW and when we were raiding Icc I wasn't sitting there thinking I was avenging my people. Arthas was going to die because it was part of my character's story. While the two may seem to be the same that is entirely the point. Arthas dies to my character not because I decided he should but because that is how the story goes. I'm just making it happen.