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Hyperspace Beacon: Life in the Force
"Remember, concentrate on the moment. Feel, don't think. Trust your instincts," was the sage advice Qui-Gon Jinn gave to Anakin Skywalker just before the Boonta Eve podrace. On the surface, this appears to be a common statement heard from Jedi. After all, Obi-Wan did say something similar when training Luke Skywalker: "I suggest you try it again, Luke. This time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct." However, not all Jedi believed the same thing. Obi-Wan's statement in Revenge of the Sith seems to suggest that Sith are single-minded, in contrast to a Jedi's open-mind: "Only the Sith deal in absolutes." We roleplayers do not have all the answers to canon and character development, but there are many of us who study our character philosophy deeply. Despite this, our Jedi characters tend to come across as stiff and one-dimensional. By contrast, Sith characters seem to have personality and variety. Of course, there will always be the Sith who are all broody and who stand in the corner of a cantina being "evil." However, if a Jedi developed a personality other than that of a sage monk, he was automatically labeled a "gray Jedi" -- or even "dark Jedi" if his personality was extremely vivid. I would like to question this philosophy. Is there more than one way of thinking among the Jedi, like Obi-Wan suggested? Are the Sith absolute? And most importantly, are the Jedi in Star Wars: The Old Republic going to be as one-dimensional as the Council members of Episode I? Follow me after the break to read my thoughts, then please, comment to discuss this further. Spoiler Alert: I am going to talk about some specifics from the Decieved novel, but I will not give away the ending.
SWTOR devs answer your questions and release a preview for Deceived
It's Friday again. That means the community team at BioWare has been working frantically all week to give you a tidbit of Star Wars: The Old Republic that will leave you satisfied yet still aching for more. With the release of Jedi and Tython impressions earlier this week, it was going to be hard to top the plethora of information streaming from that event. However, the team has come very close. We start with the monthly Friday update in which developers answer player questions: Studio Insider. On top of the behind the scenes article about building Coruscant by World Designer Eric Young, Director of Production Dallas Dickinson answered 10 fan questions. The questions that stood out to this reporter were the PvP related questions, and the interesting one was a question about leveling with just PvP. Dickinson stated, "We're big fans of multiple gameplay paths -- we don't want to force you to do one thing to advance. That means you'll level up whether you're playing PvE or PvP." The teaser of information doesn't stop there. The Official Star Wars website released chapter two of Deceived, the novel by Paul S. Kemp, to the public. This portion of the book leads the reader through Darth Malgus' attack on the Jedi Temple as seen in the SWTOR trailer. If the book intrigues you, Massively was able to review an advanced copy of the book, and chapter one is also available for your personal review. It's an exciting SWTOR weekend!
Hands-on with SWTOR's next book: Deceived
The Star Wars universe probably has the richest and most collaborative lore of any fictional world. Literally, thousands of artists and authors have taken George Lucas' creation and turned it into the books, movies, paintings, comic books, and video games we know today. Paul S. Kemp, an author and corporate lawyer from Michigan, added his name to that list with his first Star Wars book, Crosscurrent. On March 22nd, 2011, Kemp's second Star Wars book will hit the shelves. Deceived will also be the second book to deal directly with the lore leading up to LucasArts' and BioWare's MMORPG (maybe you've heard of it): Star Wars: The Old Republic. The wildly popular Deceived trailer for SWTOR shows us how a Sith named Darth Malgus led the assault on the Jedi Temple during the Sacking of Coruscant. Darth Malgus and his Twi'lek companion rather quietly walk through the front doors of the temple to be surrounded immediately by Jedi who are rather uncertain about what to make of the situation until a stolen transport full of Sith warriors comes crashing through the main hall. A battle of light and dark ensues, which culminates with Maglus facing off with and killing Jedi Master Ven Zallow. As with everything Star Wars, we only get a piece of the actual story with the trailer. This four minute trailer is the spark which eventually turns into the forest fire. Deceived tells the immediate and personal effects of this battle on Darth Malgus, his Twi'lek companion, a Smuggler, and a Jedi Knight. The novel hardback will retail for $27 U.S. ($31 Canadian) when it releases, but Massively received an advanced copy of Deceived. Continue reading to scoop up our impressions of the latest in what looks to be a series of SWTOR-related novels. (Oh, there maybe a couple of spoilers to tease you in there, too.)
Star Wars: The Old Republic gets three new characters ... one gets his own book
Ever since we were burned by the seemed-cool-until-you-heard-him-coughing General Grievous, we've been leery of new Star Wars characters -- old George doesn't really make them like he used to. But Star Wars:The Old Republic is a BioWare project, and that's a company that knows its characters, so we'll give these three new website reveals a chance. General Garza is a tough-as-nails Galactic Republic officer who's been accused of overseeing secret assaults throughout the galaxy, the Mandalore is a warrior-king who supports the Empire (and leads the Mandalorians -- Boba Fett's peeps) and Darth Malgus is -- well, with a name like that, you can probably guess. Yup, he's a Dark Lord of the Sith, and we actually saw him in the trailer released last year. Guess which character is popular enough to get a book written about them? Decieved is a novel by Paul Kemp due out in December that will tell the story of "his rise to fame and glory as the Sith Lord who destroyed the Jedi Temple." Now that sounds like a character with some depth! It's not like you could write a whole book about General Grievous, right?
