I played Republic first and then Empire for change. I quickly fell in love with the Empire - after all its the first chance in any star wars games to play on the side of evil.

But after leveling one 50 and a 46 of the same class - I have noticed a few times when the decisions made, or how the conversation went really made me sit back and go that's just wrong.

Has this happened to anyone else? has the choices made by the empire or the republic ever make you rethink the side you're on? if so, share your experience

My 1st char and my main, I went for every dark side point I could.

I was maxed out dark side pretty early and still went for as the dark side points.

 

It got to the stage that the choices I was making, made me feel a tad 'sick'. I would even say some of it is quite boarder line to even be in a game!

 

Now when I lvl new toons, light side points all the way mate!

Whenever both sides cooperate I think "we need more of this". Specifically:

 

 

 

 

It shows the moral ambiguity inherent in armed conflict.

 

A very long time ago, in a middle school far, far away a visiting scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America told us a story about an experience he had in the Desert Storm conflict. He was part of a a convoy that was ambushed and he was forced to retreat in a different direction than his squad. Working to regroup with his men, he was caught unarmed by an opposing soldier. Basically having nothing to lose, he threw up his Scout sign. The opposing soldier also put up his Scout sign and walked away.

 

Fictionalized or not, it left an impact on me. I never considered that those involved in armed conflict were "people", in the emotional sense, and were able to make decisions based on their own morality and not some greater goal assigned to them from someone in an office 3,000 miles away.

 

When I hear about similar stories, I think that this something I'd like to see represented more often. The above two story lines gave me the opportunity to see it.

 

Playing a Sith Warrior all dark felt boring after playing my inquisitor that way. Adding some light side choices as they made sense (no killing of innocents, for instance) made way more sense to me than just the full "ALL HAIL THE EMPEROR!!!" rhetoric that a pure dark side story would give you. We need to see more of that.

 

TL;DR Yes.

I played Republic first and then Empire for change. I quickly fell in love with the Empire - after all its the first chance in any star wars games to play on the side of evil.

But after leveling one 50 and a 46 of the same class - I have noticed a few times when the decisions made, or how the conversation went really made me sit back and go that's just wrong.

Has this happened to anyone else? has the choices made by the empire or the republic ever make you rethink the side you're on? if so, share your experience

 

I leveled Rep first too, and sat between a realist and a moral goodie two-shoes. But when I played Empire, I went all DS all the time, a few choices make me question my action, particularly:

 

 

 

I played Republic first and then Empire for change. I quickly fell in love with the Empire - after all its the first chance in any star wars games to play on the side of evil.

But after leveling one 50 and a 46 of the same class - I have noticed a few times when the decisions made, or how the conversation went really made me sit back and go that's just wrong.

Has this happened to anyone else? has the choices made by the empire or the republic ever make you rethink the side you're on? if so, share your experience

 

 

 

Me personally, I prefer to play DS as it's more fun for me--I've played mostly DS toons in KOTOR, TSL, JK and JA. That said, after hitting Dark V with both my vengeance jugg and tankasin I am going to change things up with my marauder and tank jugg taking more of a more neutral path

I find some of the light side points to be worse than the dark side. For example on False Emperor I can kill the guy or make him sabotage his whole fleet, killing thousands. To me:

-Killing a traitor would be light side.

-Making a guy kill thousands to save his own skin would be dark side.

 

I killed a lot of soldiers on my way to that guy. Why is one more what makes me evil? And there are lot of these choices I'd like a gray area that doesn't give me light or dark points. Mainly for the reasons of what the OP stated.

Hmm... I have a habit in games like this, to never be able to settle for one alignement type. So i have two force using characters who i am taking to alignment extremes. The other are a slightly grey either way.

 

I cannot honestly say that any of the DS or LS choices affect me. I simply roleplay, if that means torturing someone with lightning (Sorceror) So be it.

 

The reason i have both alignments is this: On my good days (When i am feeling happy) I play LS characters. On my bad days (When i feel annoyed, angry, or similar) I play DS. They are both a harmless release valve. Its why most people cant understand why i am, generally, a very calm and placid person. Even when someone is outwardly attempting to hurt or provoke me.

 

Forget what the media says. Games (In my case) are the best counselors and psychological healers you can get. IF you can learn to seem them so.

It doesnt bother me to much tbh, When I create a char I always think about what morality I want to give him before starting down either path. I dont really see it as me making the choices but my char if that makes any sense ;P If I was going to make a char based on what choices I would make in life they would probably be mostly light. xD

My main is a Commando, so I rolled a Mercenary during the stress-test beta to get a feel for the gameplay without spoiling the story. I quickly became sick of the stuff I was being forced to do; I realized that you don't have the option to be a good guy in the Empire, but only a slightly less disgustingly evil guy. Since launch, I haven't rolled a single Imp.

I played Republic first and then Empire for change. I quickly fell in love with the Empire - after all its the first chance in any star wars games to play on the side of evil.

But after leveling one 50 and a 46 of the same class - I have noticed a few times when the decisions made, or how the conversation went really made me sit back and go that's just wrong.

Has this happened to anyone else? has the choices made by the empire or the republic ever make you rethink the side you're on? if so, share your experience

 

Nope I cut off a guys head and gave it to his wife. Its a game nothing more. I dont consider the morality of the decisions at all because in the end its just pixels.

Nope I cut off a guys head and gave it to his wife. Its a game nothing more. I dont consider the morality of the decisions at all because in the end its just pixels.

 

Well said

I think the worst part of it is sitting there, thinking 'What just happened?' and then it slowly dawning on you that in the end this is just a tamer version of what's happened in real life (well, we haven't yet managed to slaughter billions in a single excursion, but I'm sure we're not far off.)

 

As an Imperial Agent player I always get a twinge of regret whenever I send someone back to HQ. I know it's what my Agent would do, he has a duty to the Empire, but a lot of the time I think it would be a lot kinder just to put a bullet in the poor sod's brain and be done with it.

 

It is a game and I do separate myself from it, but sometimes I just go 'Ahh, suck :/' but then I make myself a cup of tea and go back to shooting people and stabbing them in the back. Fun times.

I tend to be a Lightside player that instinctively may avoid doing bad things in games. But whenever I play the Empire I find it a lot of fun to try and get into a character's head and role with the "evil" (or good) decisions they would do. It's especially fun when you add a bunch of Lightside decisions despite being Dark. I feel like it makes those fewer Lightside choices especially meaningful.

 

My Imperial Agent is fun because she fancies herself a patriot before being a kind person and those very often come into conflict.

 

Or my Sith Warrior, who's evil but still a pleasant boss.

Whenever both sides cooperate I think "we need more of this". Specifically:

 

 

For Republic, on Hoth for the JK storyline where you work with the imperial solider to disable the super weapons.

For empire, when on Nar Shaddaa for the SI storyline where you work with the trooper squad to stop Darth what's his face.

 

 

It shows the moral ambiguity inherent in armed conflict.

 

A very long time ago, in a middle school far, far away a visiting scoutmaster for Boy Scouts of America told us a story about an experience he had in the Desert Storm conflict. He was part of a a convoy that was ambushed and he was forced to retreat in a different direction than his squad. Working to regroup with his men, he was caught unarmed by an opposing soldier. Basically having nothing to lose, he threw up his Scout sign. The opposing soldier also put up his Scout sign and walked away.

 

Fictionalized or not, it left an impact on me. I never considered that those involved in armed conflict were "people", in the emotional sense, and were able to make decisions based on their own morality and not some greater goal assigned to them from someone in an office 3,000 miles away.

 

When I hear about similar stories, I think that this something I'd like to see represented more often. The above two story lines gave me the opportunity to see it.

 

Playing a Sith Warrior all dark felt boring after playing my inquisitor that way. Adding some light side choices as they made sense (no killing of innocents, for instance) made way more sense to me than just the full "ALL HAIL THE EMPEROR!!!" rhetoric that a pure dark side story would give you. We need to see more of that.

 

TL;DR Yes.

 

Your scout leader may have fabricated that story a bit, but nevertheless he was making a very good point and I am glad to hear that you learned from that .

 

Understanding that an enemy soldier is also a soldier much like yourself and treating them as such is..HONOR.

 

As a guy that has spent several years in the infantry this pleases me very much...

I think it's funny how the commonly thought best dark side decision is a Jedi one

 

 

Team Rocket style haha.

My main is a Bounty Hunter so I had to choose Empire and I am full light side.

I am invested in my BH so I tend to RP in the convos and decisions. Though I'm a BH, I follow the BH code loosly. Nothin' personal, it's my job. when it comes down to the "Kill" or "Don't Kill" options, I usually always pick "don't kill" and freeze them in carbonite. If a person I'm working for confronts me and questions my actions.. I won't allow it and will pick a dark side answer (even if I don't want the dark side points).

Basicly my Bounty Hunter sticks to the code and gets the job done while still having some compassion in the final say.

I'm still working on my first character which is a level 47 juggernaut. I enjoy playing on the empire side, however, some of the decisions I think would be considered evil are shown as lightside. I have had moments where I thought the decision I chose didn't match what I had in mind, which was trying to make evil choices, but they were considered good.

I recently had a situation like this with my Gunslinger on Hoth. It's part of the world quest, I think. Both the Empire and the Republic were being attacked by some crazy pirates and so an Imperial captain decided to go ahead and offer us a temporary alliance. He fulfilled his end of the bargain but the Republic command there suspected that he was going to betray us after we deal with the pirates. So we betrayed him first. When I confronted him and explained my reasoning (it's either them or us after all) he still maintained that he was going to honor the deal with us as he was being dragged to captivity. I still think betraying the Imps was justified considering they are at war with us, but I feel bad for that captain nonetheless.

 

My Gunslinger is now on Belsavis, and to be honest, I was kind of shocked when I learned that the Republic is imprisoning people who never commited crimes against the Galaxy - they were descendants of incarcerated criminals and their only crime was that they were born on Belsavis. I mean, seriously? And the Republic is supposed to be the good side?

 

At least when I played as a Sith Warrior I knew upfront what I'm signing up for.

 

By the way, this thread belongs to the Story & Lore Forum, I think.

First off, I think it should be said that there's a contradition inherent to the game whether or not you choose good or bad, light or dark, and that is, in simple terms, the world is populated with nameless, faceless goons that you have to blast to pieces by the thousands regardless.

 

If you get past the sheer number of "people" your character has killed, and go into the RP aspect of conversations, the Empire in particular presents some great RP entertainment value.

 

I have played a Sith Juggernaut all the way to the end. I tried to RP the character as another take on the idea of Darth Vader, i.e. "there's still good in him." Also as though he was a tragic anti-hero such as in classic literature or plays. My choices were often dark, but also occasionally light. I also tried to take into account the game role that a "tank" class plays, which is to say, he draws enemy fire and enemy ire. He shields and protects allies. Why would a completely selfish, evil monster, protect anyone else? In my mind, it was only logical he might form attachments to the people he was protecting in battle, even become friends with some of them. And, of course, if anyone dared hurt his friends and allies, they would find an unstoppable freight train coming down on them... Whereas a Jedi would have a more philosophical approach, I figured a Sith would be much more of an avenger.

 

 

In summary, a flawed human being, a warrior of his people. A true Sith that serves his Emperor and that wants to actually inspire his men, not just make them fear him. He's also the guy in the scary mask with the lightsaber and a penchant for destroying his enemies.

 

My second Empire character is an alien (Chiss) bounty hunter. For a refreshing change, I made up my mind in advance that this character is quite simply a psychopath, a murderer, an outsider of her people and that's why she's a freelance gun for hire in the first place. She always takes the dark path, especially if it means money, power, and shooting people she finds weak and annoying for fun. Genuinely evil. The BW writing team did a great job with how much you can be a comic villain, full of "moustachio-twirling evil" choices a la classic Disney villains. Frankly it's a blast and quite funny because she's so over the top you can't take her seriously.

 

My third Empire character is an Imperial Agent (operative) that almost always tends to take the light side choice, not shoot people unless necessary, capture the prisoner, etc. He does his duty, makes the occasional James Bond-esque wisecrack. and flirts with women. I'm only at the beginning of his journey, but I frequently find myself laughing at the humor written into the story. For him, I went with the idea that he grew up on an Imperial colony planet and was inspired by the tales of the founding of the Empire (a la the Journal entries in the holonet). The Republic is his enemy for the same reason that the Russians were James Bond's enemies in the classic movies and novels. They're just the guys on the other side, therefore, "Live and Let Die" as the song goes. All around him he sees Imperial conscripts that need help from a brave soul (i.e, the neverending side quests bailing out Imperial troops everywhere he goes) and they're not really evil either. It's entertaining as I said.

I play total LS even on my Imp alts; thought that would be tricky but quickly saw they always give you an out (LS option) on what otherwise seem some pretty morally questionable quests, though sometimes what passes for a LS choice on the Imp side might initally leave you scratching your head although, if you think about them, they do kind of make sense from an Imp stand point.

 

What I've found interesting, however, is seeing some of the same situations from both side's perspectives. I'm thinking particularly of the one on Belsavis involving some Rep officials doing <blah blah blah>. Playing LS Rep, you find the situation repugnant. On the Imp side, they merely discuss this incident in passing but express condemnation for the Rep's actions. I'm unsure if the Imps are actually expressing moral outrage over something (imagine that!) or are simply presenting it as anti-Rep propoganda.

 

Of course, there are venal Reps as well as decent Imps, so a lot of ambiguity to ponder over.

Well... great post OP. A very pertinent question. And... I could write multiple walls of text on the matter, but rather then bore you guys, I'd like to add the following general observation.

 

Some are dissatisfied with the branching and choices you can make and maybe justifiably so. However, if you set aside the story line consequences for a moment, I really like the moral dilemmas and how they are treated in this game. In short, the message seems to be that there are shades of grey. Light and dark side choices don't always make sense. They seem to not fit a realistic choice, and I think that is intended to emphasize that everything isn't always black or white.

 

For example. I really enjoyed the trooper story and most especially the end. The first pass is confusing, frustrating and unsatisfying. But, without adding any spoilers, I think it really brings home the confusing and frustrating life of a soldier facing moral choices in both extremes and the futility of dealing with a ruling faction whose self interest is amoral at best. Consequently, you are left shaking your head and rightly so.

 

And for me this captures it. It shows me the real evil in the galaxy stems from the corruption of the ruling politic. And... as good as the Jedi want to be and as bad as the Sith claim to be the failure of both is due to an unfortunate and corrupting element which is quite simply that both sides can't accept the grey areas.

 

Of course, I realize that this interpretation says more about me in general. But I appreciate those moments in these stories that highlight inconsistencies. I like that you can choose to go against the grain no matter what side you choose. And the futility of it when facing the larger politics of the KOTOR day. Seems more than relevant.

My job requires "Light Sided" life altering decision throughout the day.

 

I enjoy getting online in a virtual world and being evil. Sue me.

I've got 3 imperial agents, 2 dark and 1 light. But with none of them can I find myself being mean to Watcher Two. I love her.

When I start an RPG of any kind, I always make a point to lay out in my head how I'm going to play if the game offers a Good/Bad system like most Star Wars games and Fallout does, before I even begin. So before I even start the prologue, I am aware if I am going to be making only good decisions or bad ones though the course of the game. I find however that this does lead to a detached gaming experience because everything has already been decided (in my mind).

 

So a lot of the big moral dilemmas in the game are often grossed over and swept under the rug for the sake of this playing style.

 

I think I developed it when I played my first RPG, KOTOR II (I know I'm a newb). I, being a perfectionist at heart, would always want the most optimized character possible. This would mean rolling a Jedi Consular, prestiging to Sith Lord, then rolling through the rest of the game with force storm as a level 50 (after exploiting the Hsseiss spawn glitch). The result would be me intentionally choosing the darker paths merely because they got the best out of the game mechanics. The same thing with Fallout 3. I would always want every special weapon, regular weapon, suit of armor, and bobblehead in the game. This would only be possible by cracking a few eggs to make your omlet.

 

I think it may have a lot to do with the way these kinds of games are designed. They tend to reward players (extravagantly, mind you) for being an exploitive, ladder-climbing son of a ****.

Interesting question.

 

Certainly, many of the dark side choices run counter to my personal ethics, but when I play I am playing from the point of view of my character. Because the situations are fictional, however much I personally would be appalled by a decision or act, I find that the fact that it is a game is an effective emotional buffer.

 

On my first couple of Imperial characters, I consistently chose the dark side options solely because they were dark side. I was curious to explore the game mechanics of progressing levels of dark side attunement, special item access and dark side corruption.

 

On my current characters, I am taking much more of a situation by situational approach. Playing my Sith Inquisitor on Hoth, for instance,

 

But I don't make these decisions because I, personally, feel the alternative is wrong. A few times even on my Republic toons, even neutral decisions have been eye-openers from a moral perspective making me go, Seriously?. For example,

 

But again, I am able to look at the situation and choose as my charcater would, or to explore the option that makes me personally curious as to the outcome.

 

I will say that the moral and philosophical principals on which the Sith Empire are built -- that power in the Force is a mandate to rule over those not so gifted, that warfare is a necessary source of cultural strength, that the weak should be enslaved etc. -- are starkly different from my own beliefs. But I am a roleplayer. I am pretending to be people who are different from me, with their own beliefs. And as they aren't actually torturing or blackmailing or murdering actual live people, I am okay with that.

Edited September 9, 2012 by Uluain