SWTOR

[luckton]

I just want to know if a certain protocol droid can finally get it on with multiple astromechs.

FTFY, since the conversation is inevitable. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

I'm still trying to figure out when this game turned into The Bachelor/Bachelorette Online   

Would it help if we privatized the MMO Discussion forum to Member-only and lift the  ban so we can talk about the game as a game again?

How would you know who was in the beta and who wasn't? No you reap what you sow, this is what happens when you leave an nda up too long, deal with it.

The whole point of this relationship drama is that same sex romances would be in the game if not for it being "SWTOR:The quest for more money" were it any other bioware game you can be sure it'd be in there.  It's pandering to a conservative section of the populous and not a gameplay decision.

Bioware built a nice 4 bedroom house, they were all ready to furnish it and get it ready to be moved in. Except since someone had a problem with one of the future tenants, they shoved all the furniture up in the attic until a future date.

[murdoc]

I think I'll play on a RP server which'll turn the Tattoine Cantina into a swingers bar. You fools are all worried about sexing up your AI companions when there's a server full of freaks you can have your sexy time with. The chicks dig the dirty /tells, they just go /ignore to play hard to get.   

If they're playing a female toon, it's not gay. Right?

[luckton]

If they're playing a female toon, it's not gay. Right?

Right up until it breaks the 4th wall.

[Shatter]

This is the first MMO in over 6 years I plan to play a male toon instead of female....shit.

[palmer_eldritch]

Am I the only person not in the beta?

[luckton]

Am I the only person not in the beta?

No.  At least, not yet, right?   

[Sky]

Bioware built a nice 4 bedroom house, they were all ready to furnish it and get it ready to be moved in. Except since someone had a problem with one of the future tenants, they shoved all the furniture up in the attic until a future date.

Also not in beta, not planning to participate. If somehow my will proves weak in this resolve...I'll play an oiltanker, since there's no way I'm going oiltanking in release! 

[murdoc]

Am I the only person not in the beta?

Not in, but got to play it at PAX at least.

I can answer all your burning TOR questions because I'm not covered by the NDA!

I had no idea what I was doing. I just used Force Leap a lot. I think I killed a guy. He was a Jedi.

[Reg]

The only reason I might break my resolve not to play the beta would be if it meant I was able to do the download early.  100 terabytes takes quite a while and with my download cap I'll need to break it up over a period of months.

[01101010]

The only reason I might break my resolve not to play the beta would be if it meant I was able to do the download early.  100 terabytes takes quite a while and with my download cap I'll need to break it up over a period of months.

ZING! 

[Sky]

We do have different levels of creatures, so some of your abilities will work differently. For example, you'll be able to stun, like a standard enemy or a strong enemy, but you're not going to be able to stun a boss or a player with that same ability. So some abilities will not have the same effect on a target that they would on a weaker target, which is a way to give players stun abilities, and sleep abilities, and other abilities that take that creatures out of combat without making it way too powerful in a PvP situation, or in a scenario where you're going up against a big boss.

That bodes well, since something like Rift has so many nerfs due to pvp. It's a much better idea to just nerf the ability vs players than the whole cloth.

[Segoris]

I think I'll play on a RP server which'll turn the Tattoine Cantina into a swingers bar. You fools are all worried about sexing up your AI companions when there's a server full of freaks you can have your sexy time with. The chicks dig the dirty /tells, they just go /ignore to play hard to get.   

Oh, so SWTOR RP servers = the Sims Online in a galaxy far far away 

[Sjofn]

But do not get me started on the creepy "make Isabela fair skinned, blonde and blue eyed" mods.

Wait.. what? I don't even get why. All I can think of as the motivation behind that is the pure-racist crowd.  That just makes me sad.

Yeah, there's like ... no reason for it that doesn't sound awful and racist. It is depressing.

[01101010]

I think I'll play on a RP server which'll turn the Tattoine Cantina into a swingers bar. You fools are all worried about sexing up your AI companions when there's a server full of freaks you can have your sexy time with. The chicks dig the dirty /tells, they just go /ignore to play hard to get.   

Oh, so SWTOR RP servers = the Sims Online in a galaxy far far away 

New meaning will be given to:

"Mos Eisley Spaceport. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious."

[Nebu]

I think I need to roleplay that I'm from the planet Renfaire and everyone there speaks in D&D style olde English. 

[Sobelius]

[Deleted by request]

[Amaron]

But do not get me started on the creepy "make Isabela fair skinned, blonde and blue eyed" mods.

Wait.. what? I don't even get why. All I can think of as the motivation behind that is the pure-racist crowd.  That just makes me sad.

Yeah, there's like ... no reason for it that doesn't sound awful and racist. It is depressing.

To be fair to the author of that mod it's just a fair skin mod with a bunch of hair/eye choices.  It's not some white power mod.

[Merusk]

Yeah, but why?  I mean, are there really people who just don't fine dark-skinned ladies attractive that aren't racist on some level?

[Riggswolfe]

Yeah, but why?  I mean, are there really people who just don't fine dark-skinned ladies attractive that aren't racist on some level?

This is a really silly statement. Sorry but it is. I happen to find very pale women hotter than dark skinned ones. So by your definition I'm a racist? Really? Because I find myself attracted to a certain type of woman? If I like smaller boobs am I pedophile too? I like long legs so clearly I hate dwarves....

[Sky]

"Looking for underage albino with giantism for long walks on the beach, call Riggs."

[koro]

"Looking for underage albino with giantism for long walks on the beach, call Riggs."

Just play a Smuggler then. 

[Merusk]

Heh, yeah misstated.  I didn't mean personal preferences but to be bothered to the point of needing to mod a game because you just can't get in the 'relationship' because, damnit, she's just too dark.

[Riggswolfe]

Heh, yeah misstated.  I didn't mean personal preferences but to be bothered to the point of needing to mod a game because you just can't get in the 'relationship' because, damnit, she's just too dark.

That's fair enough. I only look for mods for skin textures and such when the vanilla one from the game isn't well done. For instance, pretty much any face in Oblivion. Lol.

[Amaron]

I didn't mean personal preferences but to be bothered to the point of needing to mod a game because you just can't get in the 'relationship' because, damnit, she's just too dark.

People do mods with hundreds of different eye textures just to get some praise.  Considering the amount of hair/eye/clothing options this particular mod has I'd guess it was for the same reason.

[Ingmar]

This isn't just one mod, I know browsing through the list at one point I saw at least one that literally just turned Isabella white and did nothing else.

[Nevermore]

I assume mods of those type are to facilitate playing the game one handed.  As such, I don't think it's racist so much as personal preference in what the one-handed player finds attractive.

[Rasix]

You know, I never thought of Isabella as a woman of "color", just Spanish.  Perhaps this is because I'm the whitest Mexican alive.

[Sky]

People of color is an odd PC term, since, you know...

[Rasix]

How about ethnic? Let's go with ethic.  Nope, that won't work either.

 

[Merusk]

You know, I never thought of Isabella as a woman of "color", just Spanish.  Perhaps this is because I'm the whitest Mexican alive.

I thought she was Spanish right up until I realized that actual Spanish look white. In which case she'd have to be Latina, which makes zero sense because where'd the Spanish and Indigenous South Americans hook-up in DA's world?  So I settled on "Mediterranean" until I realized she wasn't Olive-skinned but darker.. then I said "fuck it I don't care and thinking about this gets in the way of daydreams about her and her lustful ways."

[Paelos]

People of color is an odd PC term, since, you know...

The NAACP doesn't seem to mind.

[Ingmar]

They were named at a time when the term was in common use. The... linguistic drift is really not the right term, but I'll use it anyway... for ethnic terms and such in English has been extraordinarily fast over the last 100 years or so.

As for Isabella, we don't really know a lot about Antiva, other than they sound kind of Spanish (except Isabela has an English accent...) and act kind of medieval-Italian. And look kind of Latin-flavored, I guess. So they're already a mishmosh of things, no reason they would or wouldn't be a particular skin color I suppose.

Also, I'm an idiot, and she's Rivaini, like Duncan.

[Rasix]

I hear the phrase used quite a bit still, mostly by African Americans on NPR.  /huge_shrug

Have the released anything yet on companion appearance customization? That's somewhat apropos to the discussion at hand.  I have a feeling it might still be behind the NDA wall.  Ohh well.

[Sobelius]

You could call it a "flesh color" mod. But now think fast -- when you hear someone refer to something as flesh colored what color *iimmediately* comes to your mind? Or type "flesh colored" into Google and then click "images".

Why is this considered the color of flesh? This is a result of a simple bias -- and largely a bias of the past. It usually wasn't anyone's deliberate nastiness, just the bias of those who produced anything where they chose to give a human form a skin color, and then give that color a name.

Now type "black flesh color" or "black colored flesh" or just "black flesh" in Google and then click images. It's not until you type "African flesh color" that you even start to see what you might expect.

Today, though, there's really no excuse for not including a full range of skin tones and other genetic physiological features. At least not in any game setting that purports to show "contemporary" humans of some kind. I prefer historical products to reflect history, accurately, even if it makes me cringe. (There are moments even in TV shows like Mad Men that are just painful in their social accuracy, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Give me the ugly truth any day over PC-washing the past.)

But for science fiction can't we at least expect options for a wide range of avatar appearance possibilities since, after all, we're talking about computer games that let us, you know, fly faster than the speed of light or command ships that can destroy planets or that have people who can use something called the force to choke the shit out of other people?

Having said this, why isn't it OK for someone to mod an avatar to their liking? Would it be wrong to make a mod where all of the main characters were Asian or African in appearance and do away with all Caucasian skins in the game?  Not in my book. It's your mod, do as you wish. Just don't tell me game producers shouldn't widen the possibilities from the beginning. SWTOR and its ilk should be opening the gates wider, a la CoX/CO, rather than narrowing the possibilities.