Geeks in a Galaxy Far Far Away

Published on 12 October 2023 at 16:37

I love Star Wars. It's one of the earliest movies that I remember watching. I have this tiny VHS television in my room that's almost as old as I am and I used to watch the Special Edition VHS all the time on it. I have read lots of what is now called Legends--both comics and novels--and my favorite videogames include KOTOR, KOTOR, SWTOR, and Dark Forces: Jedi Academy. 

One common trend that I have observed in my Star Wars gaming is that I almost never play Dark Side. In fact, it's very hard for me to play Dark Side. I have only gotten the Dark Side ending in KOTOR once and that was only because I reloaded an old save from just before the critical moment and deliberately chose the Dark Side choices just to see how that ending was different, with the result that my "Dark Side Revan" only barely qualified as "Dark Side" on the alignment meter. I have never managed to get the Dark Side ending of KOTOR 2 despite repeated attempts. And in SWTOR my LS toons far outnumber my DS ones; my Jedi all default to LS, my Sith are almost all LS, my Troopers are all Good Soldiers, my Bounty Hunters are all honorable Mandalorians, my Smugglers all have a heart of gold--even those who romanced Akaavi--and only a few of my Imperial Agents has ever sided with Darth Jadus--the vast majority of my Agents either fight Jadus or talk him down. And none of my Jadens in "Jedi Academy" have ever fallen to the Dark Side. 

This is all the more peculiar because in one of my other favorite Star Wars videogames--Empire at War--I have no qualms about playing Empire and blowing up half the galaxy with the Death Star. I think that the difference is one of scale. Empire at War is a strategic RTS game, while the other games are RPGs. The repercussions for being evil in KOTOR, KOTOR, SWTOR, and Jedi Academy feel much more personal, much more intimate, because they affect the characters around you. My one evil Revan ending up killing most of his friends and I felt horrible about it the whole time. Even my Agents who sided with Jadus only did so because I roleplayed them as buying into Jadus' promise of Imperial Intelligence finally being free to operate without Sith interference, something that really caused the Agent problems on Hutta. 

I think it also comes down to my Christian faith: I have a hard time role-playing as DS because Dark Side choices are utterly contrary to my faith and my values and I simply can't ignore them even while playing a game. 

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