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Blue Milk & Cereal: Will You Stay Loyal To Just One Faction?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

Factions. They’re present in almost every online game we play. You’re either good or evil. Horde or Alliance. Republic or Empire. You’re given the choice, and forced to live with it. Unless you decide to create a new character, of course.

So that raises the question, will you stick to one faction, or will you try out the opposing faction as well?

Sure there are people who will be stubborn and remain solely on one side of the fence, and that’s understandable. You might love one faction and truly detest the other. But in my opinion, to enjoy the game at its fullest, you’ve got to try it all. Am I right?

I knew I was going to be on the Empire the second I heard about this game. However, from the “Return” trailer, and just wanting to play like the badass that Han Solo is, I’m going to try the Smuggler out.

So what about you? Are you staying loyal to one side and refusing to test the waters of your opposition? Maybe you do, but you’ll avoid the “mirror” class of your main character. Be sure to vote and comment below on why, or why not!

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Will Your Companions Influence Your Decisions?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In the past few days, we’ve talked about both morality choices and your companions. Are you going to be the respectful Jedi, or the sadistic Sith? Are you going to use a companion that compliments you, or one that will entertain you?

That brought up an interesting question, and I want to see what you think about it. Will your companion’s personality affect your morality decisions?

BioWare is known for allowing you to gain, or lose, affection with your squad members based on your ultimate decisions. You’ll be able to make your team love you, or hate you.

Just as BioWare is giving us numerous options for companions, their personalities are going to be wildly different too. You might be a Jedi, but you’ll probably have one who likes when you make dark decisions, and then still another that prefers light side choices. There will be ones who are happy if you just go for credits, and those that prefer you to stay in the middle, avoiding the extremes.

Personally, I’m all for just basing my choices on what my character would do (it’s how I voted in Sunday’s BM&C). Preferably, I want my companion to side with my choices to boost their affection.  But what if it doesn’t?

I’ve always liked learning the backstory of various companions that I’m teamed up with. It’s adds some spice to the game, and gives more life to your ragtag crew. Will I miss out on this if they don’t like me? Will I actually make my character’s decisions just so my companion’s DO like me?

But, what about you? Are you going to have all the say in the decisions you make? Or, will your companion’s personality have an effect on how you decide to handle a situation?

 

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Blue Milk & Cereal: How Will You Choose Your Companion?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

If you look back into the history of BioWare, the idea of companions, or your “team,” has been a strong subplot for games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age and of course Knights of The Old Republic.

So it was a safe bet that when Star Wars: The Old Republic was announced, this idea would be integrated into the story here as well. One key difference here in TOR, however, is that we’ll be given the option of picking just one companion to take with us while we explore, and quest, on each planet we land on.

Currently, the official Companions page lists just one companion for each class. But it’s been stated and shown that each class will have a wide variety companions to choose from. However, only one of which we’ll be able to take with us at any given time (and the rest abolished to the crafting station!)

That raises the question: How will you choose your adventuring companion?

If you’re like me, you’ll go with the one for the sheer entertainment value. If you’ve read my articles, you know I’m going Sith Inquisitor. And if you’ve been following TOR at all, you know Inquisitor’s get Khem Val as a companion. He seems dark, loyal, and downright fearsome. I love it.

But what about you? Are you planning to use the companion that compliments you? Maybe like to tank or heal for you? Or, like me, look at the fun and entertainment factor various companions will bring?

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Blue Milk & Cereal: What Planet Are You Aching To See?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

It could be from one of the movies, a book from the extended universe or even another video game. Each one of us probably has a favorite planet in the Star Wars galaxy and find ourselves saying, “I wish I could see it.” Well, before the year is up, you might just get that chance.

There are literally hundreds of planets in the Star Wars galaxy that are literally dream destinations longing to be seen by fans around the world.

Maybe it’s the iconic locations: Coruscant, Tatooine, Hoth, and so on. Sure, it’s thousands of years before the Battle of Hoth took place. But, we’re still getting to see it and interact with it with our own eyes knowing what’s going to happen three millenia in the future. Or maybe the chance to walk across Alderaan in a time before it was blown to bits in Episode IV.

And then there are more obscure planets such as Balmorra, Belsavis and Ilum. There are even planets created for TOR that have never been seen before, such as Voss.

There are so many things I want to see, that I can’t just narrow it down to one choice. I mean, I want to see the destroyed Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and the snow covered wastes of Hoth. I want to take my first steps on Korriban and take it all in, then see the dark and foreboding planet that is Drummond Kaas.

But, if I had to choose one, one planet that I think will be the greatest planet to see, it would have to be Nar Shadda. It’s got a very Las Vegas feel to it, in the bright lights of shiny colors asepct. I remember being on the planet in Knights of the Old Republic II and wanting to see more of it. Now I’m getting my chance to see one of the most breathtaking planets in the galaxy.

But what about you? What is that one planet you can’t wait to walk across with your character in TOR? It could be Corellia, Taris, Tython or maybe one of the planets I already listed. Maybe it’s one I didn’t. Be sure to vote, and say what about the planet makes you want to see it the most!

 

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Blue Milk & Cereal: Solo Or With Friends – How Will You Play?

No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal.  Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!

In spite of the name, massively mutli-player online games can not only be enjoyed with friends, but also by yourself. When the design is done right, you’re not forced to choose either method.

With Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare is pushing both of those ideas to the next level with the introduction of Companions as well as Heroic quests.

Companions are great sidekicks that come along with you on your journey. They’ve become a BioWare staple in their single-player games. The hero (or heroine) begins a quest and along the way picks a rag-tag group of people to help achieve success. Awesome story, right?

The Companions in TOR do a good job of complimenting your own character and abilities. Some can tank, others heal, and a few will bring that extra damage if you need it. They give you the ability to continually move through most content, without having to stop and ask for help – unless you choose to.

Heroic quests are multi-player (group) quests you find throughout the game. They don’t have an impact on the story, and you clearly don’t have to do them. But they are definitely designed for group-based areas where help from other real players is required to complete the tasks, or even just to survive. It’s another way to give more of a “massive” feel to TOR.

For me, I’ve always been a solo gamer, at least in terms of leveling. Give me a companion to help with tasks,  guild chat to talk to my guildmates and I’m set. Then, there will be times I would rather quest with friends and I’ll have those options here too. And of course, I know I’ll be jumping into PvP, and in time Operations and Flashpoints, where group play is essential to success.

The great thing about TOR, and MMOs in general, is you have all of these options. You can choose to play how you want to play.

So, how do you intend to play TOR? Are you more interested in playing solo, or with a group of friends? Or would you prefer a mix of solo and group play?

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