The news of the Rakghoul plague is finally setting in. Over a dozen worlds have reported cases and the Republic Containment Bureau is being slowly stretched to its limits. For many of us who sit in our homes and drink our tea, it seems like it's a universe away. How could something so lethal touch us? It's a big question, and one that never really has an answer.

Truth be told, the most recent inflow of statements and comments about the Rakghoul plague outbreak has overwhelmed every major news publication. Yesterday, Galactic Action News imbedded a reporter in an RCB containment unit on Tatooine. The footage of this action was streamed, live, from their HoloNet site. Within minutes it was overwhelmed by traffic and the entire net-site is still down as of this afternoon.

So you're at a cantina, perhaps under the influence of a few too many shots because you've lost quite a few rounds of pazaak or whatever your game of choice may be at this point, when suddenly you receive a proposition of sorts from someone that certainly falls under the reach of the adjective 'attractive.' However, one thing stands out; he or she is a different species than your character. Perhaps she's a Twi'lek and you're a Miraluka, or you're a Chiss and he's a cyborg. Does that factor into your decision of whether to say yes or no?

Thus, the subject for today's Force Reflection is: does species really matter to your character when it comes to romance?

Now, this is the sort of question that can probably be answered differently by different species, considering Sith Purebloods do not always hold the same opinions as humans, but then, each character is unpredictable. When it comes to Holland, he is less than picky; a proposition for a bit of fun could come from just about anyone in the universe and he would say yes without much hesitation, more interested in the pleasure than the details, let alone the consequences. But there are a lot of beings out there in the universe that don't feel quite the same way. 

Game Update 1.2 keeps getting closer, and with it, the introduction of The Old Republic's Legacy System. While other MMOs have global chat systems and names, no other major online game has gone as far as TOR in connecting our characters. The idea was one BioWare has had since the game's inception, since many of the great Star Wars characters are linked by blood. Darth Vader revealing himself to be Luke's father remains one of the best twists in movie history, but how does that work for roleplay in TOR? It's a little hard to wrap your head around at first. Despite the available races being near-human or humanoid, there's still a lot of variation between a Twi'lek and a Chiss. How exactly would they breed, if it's even possible? The good news is the developers thought of that too, and you can add your characters instead as allies or adversaries to the central family tree. 

This is the article you've all been waiting to see! In this article, I'll be covering the roleplay panel as well as interactions myself and others had with the developers to ask them about upcoming features. There is a lot to cover and little time, so I'm just going to dive right in and try to get to it all. Be sure to keep an eye out this weekend as well for articles on my Game Update 1.2 Flashpoint Lost Island playtest and a final wrap-up. The Old Republic seems to keep getting better and better, and BioWare is working their butts off to make it that way, as evidenced by the dozens of coffee machines spread throughout their office.

One of the best parts of the Guild Summit, and the part I'm going to start with is the newly expanded Legacy System in The Old Republic. First off, we've all seen and heard over the past month or so about the new race/class combos, but now we finally have details about how they are obtained. To unlock a race for all classes you must level a character of that race to 50 in any of its native classes. So for instance, to get that Pureblood Jedi, you're going to have to level a Pureblood Warrior or Inquisitor first. Since Cyborgs are already shared by many classes, you'll simply unlock all the class specific implants for everyone. Humans will not unlock anything including the red skins useful for RPing Zeltrons, but instead at 50 give a global stat boost to Presence. Additionally, Twi'leks and Zabraks will unlock the colors and cosmetics available to both factions.

Star Trek and Star Wars have more in common than just sweaty nerds in costumes. They have sweaty nerds in costumes arguing over tiny nuances in their series' details. The term canon comes to us from religion, and like religion, it causes people to go to war over seemingly tiny details in their faith. Canon originally referred to the scriptures that were included in the various religious texts. Much like Star Wars, the core writings were handed down from an all knowing, infallable creator, but people kept adding to them. Canon is created by the church, or in this case LucasArts, to define which of these stories are in line with the faith and should be included. George Lucas does not regularly intervene in the lives of us mortals anymore, and therefore we must use the rules set up to determine what is canon and what is not. 

One thing many people point out about the original Star Wars movies is the lack of women. In the article on racism, I retold the joke from Family Guy about Lando being the only black man in the galaxy, but minorities aren't the only under-represented group. Most of the women we see in the original trilogy are Twi'leks dancing in Jabba's palace, and none of them are Imperials. Princess Leia is the obvious exception to this, but think about it for just a moment. If you're male especially, and the first thing you see when thinking of Princess Leia isn't her in a metal bikini, you're probably lying to yourself.