blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net present a podcast about Star Wars: The Old Republic. This episode talks about the Friday update, including: the Collector’s Edition “unboxing” video; Eurogamer Expo Highlights Video; and our favourite (and yes, we are being sarcastic), STAR WARS: The Old Republic Fan Friday.

Email us at: twotorgamers©gmail•com and Tweet us @twotorgamers

Click here for the full 31:26 episode.

blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net present a podcast about Star Wars: The Old Republic. This episode talks about Bioware’s Friday update, including: the new “Signs of War” trailer; new Game Systems page at the TOR website; a so-called “global launch” for The Old Republic (which made us laugh a lot considering half the planet isn’t involved); The Old Republic and Del Rey appearing at NYCC; and The Old Republic at Paris Games Week. We also talk about elitist RP guilds.

Email us at: twotorgamers©gmail•com and Tweet us @twotorgamers

Click here for the full 32:40 episode.

blur & Blueneko from www.beskar.net talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Click here for the three-part playlist.

From day one, literally, Bioware has made no secret of the story component of TOR.

If you’re a Trooper, you start in Havoc squad… if you’re a Sith Inquisitor, you start as a slave… and so on. This has led to people pointing out, quite rightly, that the game seems to leave less roleplaying and imagination for people.

My trooper character, for example, MUST be from Havoc squad. And yours. And yours. And yours. And yours. And you over there? Yours, too. This generally isn’t how people who like to think about their characters would prefer to play an MMO. Period.

And sure, I take onboard that some people don’t care — they just want to play TOR “as a game”. And that’s fine. But in every MMO, and in BioWare games particularly, there are people who are quite creative and like to THINK about their character, too.

This has led to a TOR forum user telling me:

Its not Bioware’s job to do that. Bioware’s job is to give us a game with a storyline, quests, and gameplay that we can enjoy.

To which I say, actually, if you want to talk about what Bioware’s “job” is, it’s to provide a realistic multi-user environment. Why? Because it says this is an MMO. As such, it needs a different set-up to Bioware’s single player games. That is the bottom line, right there.

I’m getting a little sick, actually, of people defending a single player experience as valid in MMO terms — it’s not. It’s absolutely valid in a single player game — fantastic fun, actually, and I think Bioware makes great single player games — but this isn’t a single player game and should be treated differently. Thus far, I’m worried that it hasn’t been.

So the real question is, how will Bioware reconcile story and the desire for people to feel like their own character?

There’s been a lot of talk, but none of it’s actually answered this staggeringly simple question. I really wish we had one.

In the recent Forced Species article at Massively, there’s a comment:

I do not know all the details at this time, but I do know that — as it stands — there is only one backstory choice which allows for a non-Human for each class. If we take the bounty hunter, for example, the choices are currently Outlaw, The Merc, and Gladiator. If you choose the Outlaw or The Merc backstory, you get a Human; whereas, if you choose the Gladiator backstory, your species will be Ratattaki.

I’ve read through the article once, twice, three times and it doesn’t get any better. The decision is ridiculous. It’s like Bioware, who always harp on about understanding RPGs, don’t actually understand RPGs at all.

For example, if you want to be a Ratattaki you MUST have the Gladiator background?!? Excuse me?!? Where is the diversity and imagination and everything else we associate with roleplaying in that decision?

I don’t even WANT to be a Ratattaki Bounty Hunter but, for those who do, I imagine some might like the option of the Outlaw or Merc background instead. Yet, they get wedged into being the Gladiator background only.

Crazy.

Pure crazy.

Who sanity checked all these ideas? Or was it just a group of guys sitting around a table too scared to disagree with one another for fear of being the odd one out (not dissimilar to the way the Star Wars prequels were made — and look how they ended up???)

And now some dummy, over on the TOR forums, has said to me that players still “have control over their character” in response to me making the point that this takes some of the control over a player’s character out of the player’s hands.

I mean, in what universe? How wrong can you be? If your race is dictated by the background you want… or your background is dictated by the race you want, YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL. That is so obvious. Sheesh. The Bioware fanboi’s are out in force today, I can see.

When it comes to naming your character in an MMO, there are two paths players generally take.

The first path, generally taken by people with a semi- to hardcore-roleplaying background, is to name their characters appropriately to the game world and, where possible, even their race and/or class within that game world. In Age of Conan, for example, people playing a Stygian would go and find real Egyptian names for their characters, as that race was loosely based on ancient Egypt. In Lord of the Rings Online, people would invent names that didn’t sound out of place in one of Tolkien’s tales. The character generator in that game even gave hints on how to create a good character name for the type of character you were playing.

The second path, meanwhile, is taken by people with less of a roleplaying background. These people see their in-game character not so much as a real, living, breathing character, but simply the avatar that represents them in this virtual world. As a result, such characters are given “real-life” or pop culture names like Elvis, Letterman or Pontiac. Some might even resort to expressions like, KegOnLegs or LookAtMe. This doesn’t make the character less important to these gamers — many of whom aspire to top the leaderboards — but shows that their interpretation of the pixels on the screen is vastly different to those on the first path.

In Beskar, we are on the first path I mentioned here.

While people can have whatever name they want on the Beskar forums — within reason, of course — to represent them, in the game of TOR itself, we’re aiming to eliminate “silly” character names and present as a mature guild. In this context, “silly” means names that would look out of place in a Star Wars novel, or comic. Names like KegOnLegs or LookAtMe are good examples of that. So we ask members if they already have a character name in mind, to ponder whether it would be realistic to see that character name in a Star Wars novel or comic. If they think it would, chances are that name will be fine with us.

Why do we do it this way? A combination of reasons, actually. We certainly have a group of roleplayers within the guild. For them, character names are very important — which extends to the characters they deal with in the guild who aren’t, strictly speaking, roleplayers themselves. Aside from them, we also feel that “silly” character names can really lower a guild’s reputation. After all, first impressions count and if you see a character from another guild with some stupid, or even offensive, name… what’s the first thing you think? I guarantee it’s not, “Wow, I bet he belongs to a good guild!”

So there you have it. That’s our policy on character naming. Does your guild have such a thing? If so, what is it?

When people talk about TOR, they often project their hopes and dreams onto the game which is understandable because we all like unreleased games to meet our own hopes and expectations. Sometimes, however, these hopes and expectations might be unrealistic.

A good example of this kind of thinking occurs in the area of servers. But more on that in a moment.

Typically, there are two kinds of servers in MMORPGs and two roleplaying variants of the same, as follows:

• PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds.
• PVP server, with open world PvP in several zones.
• RP-PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds. Roleplaying is always encouraged.
• RP-PVP server, with open world PvP in several zones. Roleplaying is always encouraged.

Now, many TOR fans are expecting to see all four kinds of server in operation. Yet, I have a feeling there will be one only:

• PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds.

How have I arrived at this? Easy.

First, there’s the issue of PvP. And you know what? After watching the 50 minute panel at E3 where it was stated, flat out, that while there’s PvP, nothing we do can actually affect the gameworld (because, “It has to be there for people when they play the game later on, to have the same experience…” or words to that effect), it became apparent to me that the TOR guys are leaning towards battlegrounds — specific areas where PvP will take place — and the rest of the game will be PvE, basically.

Second, there’s roleplay. And I just have this funky idea that in a game that is so roleplay-centric where everyone will be roleplaying to a greater degree than in other MMOs, I query if Bioware will bother marking some servers as RP servers. And if you’re sitting out there, spitting beer all over your monitor and shouting, “I’m no %#%@ing roleplayer!”, you will be in TOR’s eyes.

I’m thinking here specifically about elements like multiple answers characters will have in quests and all the other staples of single-player ROLEPLAYING games that Bioware is famous for.

I understand that gamers might want to elect a particular server within the TOR community as being the server where people will do very overt roleplaying, above and beyond what other people will do by default, but I doubt the game will suggest any particular server over another as THE roleplaying server; it will want to see its game as a roleplaying game, period.

So that’s my reasoning. Strip away the RP tags and strip away the world PvP and what have you got?

A PVE server, with PvP restricted to closed zones or battlegrounds.

For everyone.

The TOR forums are full of so much wishful thinking, I don’t know whether it’s sweet to behold, or the sign of people who just don’t want to face reality.

A good case in point, I recently made the observation that, “The [TOR] storyline is relatively fixed, despite having different little sidepaths…” and, “I think the real roleplay, if one wants to roleplay, will come with endgame…”

Well, didn’t people jump on that? I didn’t know anything, apparently… Bioware is amazing and will be making the biggest storyline ever where you can do “anything”… and so on and so forth. Gee, you’d think I’d gone ’round to these people’s houses and set fire to their letterbox, or something, such was the anger and bile that spewed out from some of them.

But as I said to these folks, the storyline’s still not as open as they say it is.

Why? Because the devs still need to take people from A to B. That’s how any story works. Like I had suggested, there might be some interesting sidepaths along the way, but you will still end up at ‘B’ regardless of what you do. The real variation will be in how good or evil your character has become along the way… but even then, faction swapping isn’t in the game — as recently confirmed at E3 — so there’s still not as major an outcome as you might think.

I stand by what I said and I say it again here: true roleplaying will start at end game when you’re free of the storyline that everyone else in your class is doing.

Just recently I had some words back and forth with a number of Mandalorian guilds which reside on the “undecided” forum on the official TOR forums. The conversation(s) can be distilled down to this:

blur: Why are you guys in the “undecided” forum? Isn’t it clear that the Bounty Hunter is the most Mandalorian of classes? As such, shouldn’t you be a Sith guild, like Beskar, in order to have Bounty Hunters on your roster?

Guild 1: We don’t know enough, yet. Who says that Bounty Hunter is the most Mandalorian of classes?

Guild 2: We are a Sith and Republic guild, so we can have any classes we want.

Guild 3: It’s all roleplay. We can say we’re Mandalorian Jedi, working for the Republic, if we want to!

Working backwards on those replies, I can see how some people would be ‘OK’ with being in a Republic guild, comprising Jedi, Smugglers and Troopers and roleplaying that they all have Mandalorian backgrounds. I think the more passionate Mandalorian fans, meanwhile, can see the flaws in this method. Namely, everything we’ve seen of the storyline points to the Mandalorians fighting the Republic at present, in the employ of the Sith. Not to mention, the issues Mandalorians have with Force users in general.

Sure, it might have been cute when Karen Traviss wrote a Jedi into Kal Skirata’s clan in the Republic Commando series of novels — and I have no doubt that’s where all these “Mandalorian Jedi” wannabe’s are getting their inspiration — but even that was under very, very specific circumstances… including said Jedi renouncing his Jedi ways and living like an beskar’gam wearing Mandalorian, day to day. Meanwhile, I get the feeling that all these “Mandalorian Jedi” wannabe’s are going to want to have their cake and eat it too, ie: to run around as a Jedi in-game, but call themselves a Mandalorian, too. Blech.

The second reply, meanwhile, flies in the face of all logic. Bioware has divided the classes across two factions — Sith and Republic — and made it clear that TOR is all about a universe at war. They want everyone to be “heroic” and taking part in this conflict whether they like it or not. See, TOR’s not a game like Star Wars Galaxies where you could opt-out of the fighting and go and have a farm on Tatooine. TOR is all about the fight. As such, I would fall off my chair, twice, if Bioware says that guilds can be multi-factional. Given that, all these guilds which claim to be multi-factional are most likely going to be up a well-known creek without a paddle and will lose members when they have to choose one faction over the other and all the members who wanted to be “the other” faction either have to change faction or get the shaft. Watch and see.

Some more advanced guilds claim they will simply run two separate guilds. OK… the only problems I see there are, (i) The game could easily faction-lock people to a server (ie: if you create a Republic character, you cannot create a Sith character on the same server — and vice versa),  which means that the two guilds would exist on two different servers — essentially in two different universes, so to speak — making the concept next to pointless and, (ii) Running one guild is tough. Running two guilds is insane. Anyone who lightly says, “Oh yeah, I’ll just run two guilds…” has clearly never done it before.

Then we get to the third reply. The reply that guild’s make when they just can’t believe the game isn’t going to go their way. The reply of people who can read a dozen hard and fast facts about TOR, then turn around and say they’re all meaningless because more information might emerge to blow them all away. Nuh. Sorry. Not this time. The game is what it is and I think Bioware has been really clear in a number of areas about where its taking the storyline and, by association, the gamers who play certain classes. Just on the Mando question, I refer you all to the new Drew Karpyshyn interview at Darth Hater. Specifically, this bit:

During the panel you mentioned that the Mandalorians will be a part of the Bounty Hunter class story line; how involved will they be? Also, can you give us any more information about how prominently they will be featured in the over arching galactic story?

DK: We obviously can’t go into too many details, but the Mandalorians are an integral part of the Bounty Hunter class story. They are also, as the Mandalorians are wont to be, a very powerful faction in the galaxy. They like to get their gauntlets in everyone’s business, so they will feature quite prominently in Star Wars: The Old Republic. And if you are a fan of the Mandos, I think you are going to really like it.

So how any Mandalorian guild can sit out there, at present, and tell me that the Bounty Hunter class isn’t tied up with the Mandalorians more than the other classes… I don’t know. I just don’t know. And, sure, Karpyshyn does say that the Mandalorians get into “everyone’s” business — and that’s no surprise given we’ve watched them sack Coruscant in the timeline — but it’s always the Bounty Hunter class that gets singled out for the most Mandalorian attention and commentary. How any guild could sit out there and tell me that the Jedi or Smugglers or Republic Troopers, for example, are “more Mandalorian” in their storyline is beyond me.

And yet there it is… there are Mandalorian guilds out there, right now, which will promise you a multi-factional guild, even though that’s highly unlikely to be allowed in the game. There are others which will promise you two guilds, even though that’s going to be an admin nightmare and the guild’s could end up being on totally different servers, anyway. Others will say it’s cool if you want to roleplay a Mandalorian Jedi — even though it’s perhaps the cheesiest and least likely character I could ever dream up. And then there are others who will try and assure you that Bounty Hunters really aren’t the most Mandalorian of all the classes… yet they clearly are.

What are your thoughts?

I’m the first to admit that my knowledge of the Star Wars Universe, both basic and expanded is limited. Seeing all the movies (each 3-30 times) and browsing Wookiepedia (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page) should have given me a pretty thorough grasp on all I have to know make my way in the Galaxy far, far away, right?

Wrong.

The movies are just a tip of the iceberg, with countless books, comics and games creating new material all the time. The events described in these media span almost the entire length of time and space of the galaxy and beyond, but of course they are not published in chronological order. Sequels and prequels abound, and famous characters and places appear in many publications.  Combining all this almost invariably leads to inconsistencies, logic gaps and background stories which do not seem to fit together. Sooner or later you come to the point when you think: this can’t be right. Either this or that can be true, but not both. And you would be sooo wrong.

As you probably know, there is one fundamental rule in Star Wars, and it is: GL is God. What George says, and only what he says is Canon, the things that really happened. Everything in the movies is Canon, even when events in E1-3 seem to contradict events of E4-6. Vader did not know C3-P0 or R2-D2, yet he built the one and worked with the other for years. Obi-Wan did not know that Leia was Luke’s sister, yet he was there when the twins were born, and gave her to her foster parents. Yet that is what is Canon, what is true. And that’s just the movies! The books are much worse, inventing doomsday devices left and right, creating massively powerful alien races and ancient civilizations, time travel and all those things the existence of which by rights should massively influence everything else in the universe but oddly enough doesn’t. If you want to know how bad canonical material can be, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAAo5ePpv9U

I hope that at this point you agree that sometimes ignorance is bliss. There is so much stupid and silly stuff in the SW universe that often you are better off not knowing what is official. Chances are, you can come up with much better ideas in your sleep.

To understand why this is no accident, it is helpful to view all Star Wars publications as independent stories: Story is King in Star Wars, and it is much easier to tell a good-self-contained yarn on the backdrop of the Star Wars Universe then to try and integrate everything into one coherent over-reaching story arc. Games are not unaffected by this, as, for example, the KOTOR II storyline is more than problematic on its own, and even more in the context of SWTOR. This has lead to the famous so-called choices you have in a Star Wars Game: Jaden in Jedi Academy can chose to fall to the Dark Side; so can Kyle Katarn, Revan and the Exile; Galen Marek can kill Darth Vader and take his place.

Only you can’t, at least not officially. As far as I know, there not a single Star Wars game with a Dark or Light-sided ending that did not canonically require you to take the Light-sided path, even though the other paths seems more logical to everyone.

So what to do if you come across a piece of Canon that you think is, to say it delicately, rubbish? Just accept it?

That’s hard if you are a logical person: two contradictory things can’t be both true, unless you assume that Quantum effects reach much larger scales in the SW then in our world. I also have a hard time to understand SW logic most of the time: in an Empire of hundreds of thousands of worlds, how can anyone think that a single world-destroying space station would be able to keep control?

Should you ignore it?

You can safely ignore it if you intend to keep your exposure to Star Wars nerds to a minimum. The fact that you read this indicates that it is too late for that. The next thing is to group with like-minded individuals who agree with your interpretation. In this ‘safe’ environment you can establish a micro-canon, rejecting inconsistent or bad Canon, and accepting non-Canon which you like. Or create your own stories.

Every roleplayer does just that, creating a world for their characters without asking GL for permission or sanction. They never presume that what happens in their character’s stories should affect anything else in the SW universe. It’s their story, and anyone’s they which to share it with.

Beskar is such a micro-Canon environment, a place where we try to superimpose our own narration on top of the SWTOR story arcs, creating a world within a world. While it will be good to integrate as much as we know about TOR into our world, we do not have to take it all: for example, the first mention of Mandalorians in the Threat of Peace comics showed them as suicidal bone-heads who would fight a much larger ship with no chance of winning just to prove how ‘Mandalorian’ they are. We more or less unanimously rejected the ‘Lesser Mandalore’ even before BW replaced him in story. I think we should continue to pick & mix what we got from SW media in general and SWTOR in particular to create a world of Star Wars we feel comfortable playing in.