Last week was a bit of a kerfuffle between craziness in my life and that of our editor. You may have noticed The Darker Side of Life didn't get on the front page until Friday. Not really the end of the world, but I did feel it was too late in the week to gather a set of responses for the next topic in time. Therefore, I'm going to do things a bit differently this week. Instead of the usual gathering and analyzing responses on a certain topic, I'm going to talk on roleplay in The Old Republic in a more general sense and bring up some of the things that have been bugging me lately. 

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. 

Star Wars fans are a very opinionated bunch; in fact, it is sometimes hard to find two fans of the franchise that can agree on much of anything. The deservedly infamous Star Wars Holiday Special seems to exist outside of this bubble of conflicting opinions, though; pretty much everyone agrees it is really, really bad. The cult classic has a reputation for being embarrassing, hilarious, and horrifying in various degrees. But are all Star Wars holidays destined to be so campy and pointless?

In-game holidays are a staple in many MMOs. Perhaps the most extreme example is World of Warcraft, which manages to replicate just about every real world holiday with corresponding in-game events, such as themed items to collect and special quests to complete. Star Wars: Galaxies was also host to many Star Wars-themed holidays over its long run, such as Life Day (Christmas) and the Ewok Festival of Love (Valentine's Day).

In a game like World of Warcraft, which is filled with pop culture references and doesn't take itself too seriously, holidays are normally well-received within the community as an added bit of fun. But in Star Wars: Galaxies, there was very much backlash from players--especially roleplayers--about how silly and out of character some of the events seemed. At the same time, many would argue that in-game holidays are meant to be taken as something fun and lighthearted, which means they are not necessarily part of the epic main storyline that a game presents.

Is there really any harm in having holiday events, even if they are a little bit silly or nonsensical? Would you prefer holidays were kept completely out of The Old Republic, or do you eat them up? Do you only enjoy more "serious" holidays, or are the silly ones just as fun? Make your voice heard in the comments!

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of The Darker Side of Life; the SWTOR-RP weekly column where we discuss the prevailing RP issues of the day and take your opinions on them. For the past several months, I've taken your suggestions on topics from a wide variety of categories. Some of them are fairly static, others like our discussion on companions in roleplay were predictions, done before the launch of The Old Republic, based on what we knew about the game at that time. In this week's article, we're going to revisit several old topics with fresh opinions, both from old members who may have read the originals when they were first published, and fresh faces who have joined us recently, all to answer one question: how has the launch of The Old Republic changed your opinion on roleplay? 

Today Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid announced an update for the ongoing graphics debate in The Old Republic. You may have noticed that no matter how high you set your graphics options, you never get those perfect textures that can be seen in the in-game conversations and cinematics. Apparently this is working as intended, and what we see normally is a slightly lower setting. Stephen Reid explains that this is due to the lag issues that would be caused by the high resolution textures during normal gameplay. If you want to go into the technical issues of it you can read his full post on the official forums. 

How do we classify roleplay, if it is even possible? That is the question in this week's The Darker Side of Life. The terms heavy and light RP are now commonly used by guilds to advertise themselves on the forums and to possible new recruits. What does heavy and light RP even mean though? The terms have evolved over time to classify more then guilds but players as well. What are roleplayers doing differently that we can judge each other on? We'll be diving into the issue and using your responses to try and work out differences. 

How much control do you really have over your character? That is the question at the heart of the matter we'll be discussing in this week's edition of The Darker Side of Life. Consent, notification, and anarchy. Three scary sounding words we'll break down and give meaning to through hands on examples. What is the best way to roleplay? If you're looking for that answer, then these aren't the droids you're looking for.