Sebaya Keto posted Mar 14, 12
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Agent, Amaranth, Author: Sebaya Keto, BioWare, Bounty Hunter, Chroma, Cloak, EA, Electronic Arts, Enjin, Executor, Extended Universe, Galactic Civil War, Jedi Consular, Kida, LucasArts, Mai Cash, Millenium Falcom, Nar Shaddaa, Operative, Republic, role-play, Roleplay, RP, Sendra, Sith Assassin, Smuggler, Spying, Star Wars, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars The Old Republic, Stealth, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Darker Side of Life, The Empire Strikes Back, The Old Republic, Tolian, TOR, Trooper, WingedThing, Xaveric
Welcome back to another issue of The Darker Side of Life, the roleplay column for The Old Republic where we take a look at the issues concerning roleplayers, and try to find solutions for them. In this week's issue, we're tackling stealth and how it affects roleplay, specifically spying and information gathering. Spying can be a core part of an RP community, with different groups trying to figure out what each other is doing. There are all sorts of ways to gather information, from bribery, to torture, even just being a fly on the wall and listening in. The real question is, what happens if that fly on the wall has stealth abilities and can't be seen by the other players, is it still legitimate?
As always, I've collected your responses from the thread and worked them into this article where we're going to try and come up with some ways to make stealth RP work, and make it fun for everyone. Sitting cloaked in a meeting watching your enemies plot may be exciting from an adrenaline rush for the first minute or two, but without any interaction it gets boring. After all, if they can't see you, there's a zero percent chance of being discovered, and that's also why many players consider it unfair. Join me as we dive into the issue head first and try to settle the debate over whether stealth powers are acceptable to use in roleplay.
Sebaya Keto posted Feb 22, 12
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Author: Sebaya Keto, Balkito, Bieldywyn, BioWare, Darth, EA, Electronic Arts, FreelanceWizard, Jedi, Jerax Teral, LucasArts, MacButt, Mai Cash, role-play, Roleplay, RP, RP-PvP, Sendra, Sith, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, The Darker Side of Life, The Old Republic, TOR, WingedThing
Admit it: when you meet someone new, chances are you peek at their level, and maybe even open up the inspection window to look at their stats. In this week's edition of The Darker Side of Life, we're going to be diving into this issue. Does your character's level and gear matter in roleplay? On one hand we have a group that I like to call the Earners. They say that characters are what they earn. If you want to RP a Darth, get to 50 and get the Darth title. If you want to RP a powerful duelist, get some PvP gear. Characters that have had that effort put into them are more deserving of respect, right?
Not so counters the other group which I like to call the Storytellers. Respect is something a character should earn through solid roleplay, and good storytelling. If a level 10 character can play the part well, why not let them RP a Darth? Any monkey can make level 50 and get PvP gear given enough time, so why not respect things that matter more to roleplay? These are the two sides in this battle, one we're going to comb through in detail and try to work out some answers.
Join me as we take a look at your responses and attempt to dig through the issue. Does your character's level matter in roleplay? Should a player have to get their character to level 50 to be taken seriously in roleplay, or is it just a form of metagaming? Once again we're back on the same tangent of game mechanics in roleplay. Hold on tight and keep your arms and legs inside the car until we come to a complete stop, because it's going to be a wild ride.
Sebaya Keto posted Feb 15, 12
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A New Hope, Alderaan, Amaranth, Author: Sebaya Keto, Azhandra Rycar, Balmorra, BioWare, Empire, Hyperewok1, Ilum, Knights of The Old Republic, Lord Adraas, MacButt, Mai Cash, Mishka Kalrook, Ord Mantell, Raath, Republic, role-play, Roleplay, RP, Sony Online Entertainment, Star Wars, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, Taris, The Darker Side of Life, The Empire Strikes Back, The Old Republic, Tieran, TOR
Look at your watch, and now back to me. Now take out a piece of paper and write the date. It's the middle of February now so most people have stopped writing 2011 by accident and switched to 2012. This is real life and we know when we are. In fact, it's crucial to our very way of life. Log in to The Old Republic now and strike up some roleplay with another player. Chances are neither of you even know exactly what year it is. In a galaxy that is quickly spiraling towards all out war, don't you think it would be good to know if the war has started yet?
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.
Sebaya Keto posted Jan 18, 12
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Agent, Atreiyu, Author: Sebaya Keto, Balkus, BioWare, Blizzard, Chiss, Darth Maul, Dromund Kaas, Dungeons and Dragons, Kaemrys, Kerri Knight, Khem Val, MacButt, Mai Cash, Mishka kalrook, Obran, role-play, Roleplay, RP, Sriin Knorei, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars The Old Republic, SWTOR, SWTOR-RP, Talos Drelik, Tatooine, The Darker Side of Life, The Old Republic, TOR, Vette, World of Warcraft
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?
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.
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