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?
