Back in the day, when I was a new MMO’er and starting fresh in Everquest, Role Playing was something I had only associated to those D&D games.

The ones that made kids go nuts and do things not associated to being normal. In EQ, I played a Wood Elf Druid and had a few guildmates who introduced me to the world of MMO RP as it was then. Not much, as most you had a first and last name and generally just talked (typed) how you wanted to play your character as. They weren’t the hardcore who always were in character, but they did their best.

I had one guildie who played a Dark Elf Necromancer and she loved to RP with try to RP with me. She was basically my introduction into this world. Although I was really bad at it, she never got mad and always made the attempt. Now, I have never really seen much support for RP in a MMO. Even Warcraft, which I see as taken RP a step back from what players had, as they have never implemented the first and last name system in place that most players were use to. Now in WoW, you have to use an add-on to get the most out of an attempt to RP.

So with Swtor, I have already noticed a few things that most RP players might like. Names, for a start, I have noticed are able to be hyphenated with special characters. This brings an element to naming your character for the specific RP feel or bond you want your in-game avatar to share with yourself. Also, from what I understand, the first and last name convention is back. Good times for all the RP’ers out there.

The other aspect I see is the whole choice system. So this basically opens the door up for Role Playing in Swtor. You want to play the Dark Side? You got it. You want to play the Sith Warrior trying to make amends for past actions so you start to choose the “good” choices in conversations with NPCs. Are you wanting to play a Jedi that is skirting the line on falling into the Dark Side of the Force?  To do this, you start choosing some of the darker responses. Swtor really opens up some of the aspects of the Role Play in MMO”RP”G.

The thing that really makes this nice as a Role Player is that, no matter what type of Role Player you are, you can make your choices in-game, Flashpoints and wherever even while grouped, and the only thing that matters is your choice. If you chose the dark side choice in the conversation but a player who went towards the light side wins the roll for the response, your choice still counts for you. So while you might not get to see your part play out, you know that it counted for how you want to play you character, and as a Role-player, it’s your choices that matter for your character the most.