There are several levels of canon. G(eorge Lucas)-canon is the highest level. This includes the two trilogies and anything he writes or says. If Lucas declares Luke Skywalker to be a Gungan tomorrow, everything else must be re-written to suit that, or be expunged. T(elevision)-canon covers the Clone Wars movie and TV series, as well as the live-action TV series if Lucas ever finishes it. C(ontinuity)-canon covers the bulk of Star Wars lore, including the Expanded Universe, the Knights of the Old Republic series, and The Old Republic itself. Anything in this category is considered canon unless it is contradicted by something higher up. Below that is S(econdary)-canon, consisting of things that are not canon themselves, but whose parts can be. Star Wars Galaxies is a good example of this. Finally we have N(on)-canon which includes the Infinities series, and anything else not considered canon, or that has been contradicted, including all your fan-fiction and roleplay. In this week's The Darker Side of Life, we'll dive in and discuss how it affects roleplay.

My regular readers know I come from Star Wars Galaxies; an entirely different beast of the MMO genre where players spent eight years in 1 ABY. That's one year after the first Death Star was destroyed in A New Hope, and before the Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back. Sony Online Entertainment kept the game world static, despite releasing a Battle of Hoth instance near the end. BioWare is taking a completely different approach. You may not have realized it but the timeline has already moved since launch with the release of Game Update 1.1. With the release of Game Update 1.2 in March, it will move ahead again, and continue to every major update. How do we work with that in roleplay?

There are a lot of people that want to RP in the cold war a while before jumping into the war. Other people think that since BioWare is moving the timeline, we should jump right to the end. How can we rectify that? After all, if a group is RPing years apart from you in character, how do you interact with them? Clearly we need a way to find out just when we all are. So read on and we'll discuss your thoughts about the issue in this week's The Darker Side of Life.

The Old Republic has a new an unique system for us as well. The Sith/Darkside Corruption mechanic actually changes the character's appearance as they accumulate Dark Side points. Skin becomes pale and veiny, eyes become orange, then red. But is that even enough to assume someone might be a Sith, and how does that help with Jedi? Miraluka can see the force, so shouldn't they be able to tell light from dark? How do they do it? Can they just examine someone and look at the little force slider? 

Companions aren't the only thing we'll be discussing though. Server communities was another hot topic we touched on. Many players voiced their opinions on separate servers for timezones, or RP-PvP, or even keeping everyone together. Now we'll look into how things have turned out in the first month of the game. Combat solutions, the classic dice, duel, and the emote debate can never truly be settled, but it varies by game depending on how the players feel about the options a developer provides. Lastly, we'll touch on a more recent topic, being our discussion of RP hotspots and how players are using or abusing them. Join me in this very special edition of The Darker Side of Life as we take a trip back and look at how getting to play The Old Republic has changed your thoughts on roleplay topics, if at all.

Join me on a ride through the minds of your fellow roleplayers as we attempt to define a Gray Jedi and how they can be used in RP. We'll look at examples – good and bad – of lore and player characters based on what you think of them. All of this boils down to one thing: what, if anything, is wrong with RPing a Gray Jedi, and is the concept as a whole flawed? Click past the break and read the rest to find out what your fellow roleplayers think, and be sure to leave a comment to help strike up the never-ending discussion!

Welcome back everyone to this week's The Darker Side of Life. In this edition, we will be discussing our characters and how we create and become attached to them. The two main issues here are called Mary Sue, and the IC/OOC divide. Mary Sue refers to the complexity of a character, their balance, and how much of ourselves we put into them. The IC/OOC divide is a term for how we keep ourselves as players separate from our characters, sometimes not always successfully. 

When I think of Mary Sues, I like to think of Duke Nukem. He represents an unstoppable killing machine bubbling over with testosterone that is out to kick ass, get the ladies, and nothing else. When it comes down to it though, it's not much fun to be in Duke Nukem's universe if you aren't the king himself. Mary Sues tend to put other roleplayers in a similar position, since they are often all powerful or unstoppable. The question is, where do you draw the line? How much is too much? 

The IC/OOC divide is an even more convoluted topic. We often put a bit of ourselves into our characters, but again, how much is too much? How do you know when you've become so attached to a character you cannot bear to see them harmed? Every roleplayer has become too attached at some point, and the question here is more how to deal with it when it happens, otherwise it can be a problem for everyone around you.

In the Star Wars and The Old Republic universe, slavery is almost everywhere. Though illegal in the Republic, slavery is law in the Empire and a thriving business on independent worlds. The Sith Inquisitor even begins their class story bound in slavery, so it seems like we can say that it's impact on our world is undeniable. While real world slavery still exists to this day and is a deplorable institution, I invite you to check your real world misgivings at the door and enter into a world where many live and die by the shock collar.

How much is too much? Are there exceptions? These are the questions we'll be looking at in depth in this week's edition. You told me what the ups and downs of these characters are in your own words, and now I'm going to put it all together in an attempt to find an answer in all of it. Would Star Wars still be as exciting if Luke Skywalker was just a farm boy with a blaster, or if he was a Jedi Grandmaster from birth? Probably not. Does that give us the right to make our own powerful characters? Well, you're just going to have to read on to find out.