Hehe, I have similar issues when I play males, honestly. Being that I'm not one, I mean. I liked the male Bounty Hunter I played in Beta, only because the voice acting, I thought, was superb. He SOUNDED like a bad'a** bounty hunter. Just fit, imo. So when I say I like the male body size 2 more than any other, just understand I'm a woman, who refuses to play a character I can't stand looking at for weeks at a time in countless scenes and from various angles. To me, the body types work like this: (1) Male body type 1 looks like a teenage boy, with everything just out of whack. What's with his head? Looks too big for the rest of his body. If I had a teenage son, that's what he'd look like and he'd whine to me about when all his extremities would start to mesh up with the rest of him. Lucky me, I have three daughters, all of whom whine to me about "ucky boys". (2) Male body type 2 looks ... nicely toned, with all the muscles in just the right place, like he works out and eats well and takes care of himself without going overboard, looks healthy ... forgive me, please ... that's how I want a male model to look. (3) Male body type 3 looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, back when he was still young enough to truly star in some movies about great big machines intent on killing every human being in existence. I've paid enough attention to the regime body builders put into their workouts, to really be turned off by the overall end result. Just...ugh. (4) Male body type 4 looks fat. I have nothing personal against fat, really. Some of my favorite people are fat, and I love them totally. But again. This is fantasy and escape. I want a hero I plan on looking at and enjoying seeing for weeks at a time through endless adventures. Fat doesn't work, in my little myopic fantasy. Them's my thoughts. Please bear in mind, they're only personal opinion and everyone is free to have different thoughts at any time.

Female, body size 2. She's dark-haired and light-eyed. She's scarred, was greatly injured as a young teen, barely survived. Mind you, I played a male, body size 2, through the Beta. Having played both genders, I think I can say, fairly, that the BH armor looks MUCH better on a female than a male. Accentuates her curves without making her look like a friggin' tank clunking around the area. Only thing I despise about the armor is the headgear, up until mid to late 30s. Whatever those penile-looking helmets are supposed to look like, fact remains I "hide head slot gear" every step of the way until I finally get a real face-covering helmet in my 30s.

(1) You didn't "meet Braden five minutes ago". I mean, do you seriously think some stray bounty hunter could walk into the room and Braden would be like, "Oh, well, we'll pin all our hopes on you, stranger"? Seriously, Braden was familiar with your bounty hunter, even before he/she arrived on Hutta. They'd met before, enough he guaged the hunter as "the one to pin our hopes on". At one point, the bounty hunter says, "Braden found me." There was some kind of interaction before Hutta. Even if in your own personal roleplay that interaction is limited and impersonal, which it isn't in mine, the fact some bastard walks in and slaughters YOUR team, YOUR guys, YOUR fellows is, imo, more than enough to justify the hunter's determined response for revenge. (2) I don't get Gault, either. Mind you, I sort of enjoy having him tag along. He makes me laugh alot of the time. Alderaan was alot of fun with Gault running with me. But I did think it was kinda weird how he went so fast from being a mark to a companion. I sort of justified it by considering his usefulness, in terms of money-making, which is what my hunter was focused on at that point of the story. Her focus changed later on, yes, but by then she was sort of friends with the guy. (3) My hunter liked Mako, they were a team. I played my hunter fairly neutral, making decisions based more on the particular circumstances, than anything else. There were several people she left alive, others who didn't stand a chance. In the end, Mako was very much a little sister, of sorts. She didn't approve of everything the hunter did but was good to go more often than not. You'd be surprised how often Mako is perfectly fine with the hunter just shooting someone dead. Very much depends on the job. If the target doesn't NEED killing, why do so, Mako says.

What would you want to see at a show this year? (Examples might include PvP tournaments, Q&As at the booth, photo opportunities) I would love to talk to some of the story writers and designers, I'm an absolute nut for spoilers. I would also enjoy the chance to meet some of the voice actors. Between the writers and the actors, the stories were brilliantly done! And I want MORE! What topics would you like to see covered on panels? Specific areas of the game? General roundtables with the developer team? Voice actors? Why didn't some of my favorite voice actors get bigger roles and will you PLEASE give them bigger roles in an expansion...soon. That's me being a fangirl-nut, btw. Still, I could list them out if you want....lol. If a show is in your area, would you be likely to attend a Community Meet & Greet outside the show itself? YES!

You're certainly not the first guy I've heard who wondered about the actual combat motions made by the Bounty Hunters versus force users. For me, I knew going into the game I was going to roll with a non-Force user. I was NOT disappointed by either the smuggler or the bounty hunter, by any means, not when it comes to story. It's the story that's kept me from really going anywhere with a Jedi, for instance. Their tales, to me, seem very "meh". I believe the reason I found the Smuggler and Bounty Hunter stories so fun was mostly the personality of those characters. They're just downright fun to play, as their dialogue and choices so often leaves me laughing my butt off. A Jedi tried to force persuade my Bounty Hunter into walking away from a fight, to which my Bounty Hunter calmly waved her hand in reply and said, "And you will realize what an idiot you are." Moments like that are priceless, and they're many of them throughout the story. I also like that the Bounty Hunter is utterly independent. On several occasions, she has the chance to state, emphatically, "I am NOT an Imperial." There's a core of stubborn independence to the character, an attitude that says, "I will NOT do this according to your say-so but only as I think best." I like that. The Smuggler is similar. In both cases, you end up with a character who doesn't kiss anyone's butt or meekly accepts someone's direction just because they wear a pretty uniform. And while there's none of that swishy sound you'd get if you were playing around with the Force, there's something incredibly satisfying about making a "death from above" pot shot against four or five fellows on the ground and watching them all fall down dead. Them's my thoughts, anyway.

I'll say firstly that I'm a female gamer, so most of my favorite romances are with the guys, sorry. I've tried a couple as a gender bender and just can't get into it. Although I may redo my SW tale and make her a him, only because I have completely ruined the story by reading some spoilers in regards Quinn, sigh. In the meantime, my favorites are focused on the smuggler and bounty hunter story lines. Corso Riggs is a pure sweetie pie. The romance arc between him and the smuggler is fun and funny, pleasing and adorable. He's the kind of guy I could see giving everything there is for someone he loves and never once looking back on it with regret. He's loyal, giving, and protective. Just a very pleasing romance, that one. Then there's Torian Cadera. He's the reason my bounty hunter ended up a female. I tried playing the BH as a fellow and Mako is nice enough. I can definitely see why she'd appeal to a guy. But Torian blew me away, as I was going along with my woman BH. Their first flirtation has her tossing him over her shoulder onto the ground and grunting out a complaining, "Men," to which he calmly lays there, looking up at her, saying, "I deserved that." It was awesome. Of all the romances, the one between the bounty hunter and Torian just makes the most SENSE to me. They're both Mandolorians, both looking for much the same out of life, and both truly admire and respect the other. I've had not one single disappointing romance conversation with Torian as I've been leveling. Haven't tried any of the Jedi yet. And I've heard next to nothing about the SI's arc with Andronikus Revel. Since the SI will probably be my next character, I'll have to see how that one works out. I will say Bioware continues to stun me with good storytelling. Makes it fun and engaging.

Please explain, firstly, what's so gosh-darn awful about the tale. Why is it you despise it so much? Were you never once enthralled over stories written by authors like JRR Tolkein or Isaac Asimov? Ever lost yourself in tales about Narnia, Wonderland, or Oz? Did you sit down and consider what it would really be like to be a Drow or fight a dragon? Ever played a heady game of D&D with your friends at a tabletop, rolling dice across the wood and cheering when you finally got a critical roll? It's simply entertainment, stories told many times over in a myriad of ways by countless numbers of storytellers, and it endures precisely because so very many people just plain enjoy it. Might as well ask someone why they like one food versus another, as if they shouldn't just because your preferences are different. I myself, though, do not have to justify any of the satisfaction I derive from the story I'm enjoying.

Honestly, what bugs me about rolling on items for companions is simply that there isn't really an item, in the game, that a player can't use for some companion sometime. I mean, my heavy armor-wearing Bounty Hunter has a couple companions who use "cunning" enough that medium or light armor items are worth grabbing. Likewise, my medium armor-wearing Smuggler has companions who use "aim" on heavy armor items, too. I have to build up and gear out my healing companions, my tank companions, my dps companions, regardless of character I'm playing, because they all have such NEEDS. So there isn't really going to be a time I honestly can't at all use any item that drops. Somehow, someway, one of my characters somewhere could really benefit from using it. So then it becomes a question of when DON'T I roll need, if that's the case? I was running around in a Heroic group with a fellow who rolled NEED on every single thing that dropped. Finally, I asked him why he'd rolled on something he very obviously couldn't even use. When he said it was for one of his companions, I then asked why he'd rolled on something earlier that I knew none of his companions could've used, and he replied that his Bounty Hunter character could use it. Truth is, he was correct. But I still reminded him that MY Bounty Hunter could've used it and was running in the same group he was, to boot, and then pointed out MY companion(s) of MY multiple characters could've used the myriad items he'd needed on already. And then I dropped from the group. I figured I had better ways to spend my time than to waste it running around gearing up someone else's character(s). Most often, when I'm in a group and see something drop that I would like to roll on for one of my companions, I simply ask if it's okay that I roll on it. If one of the other players says it's a personal upgrade, I respect that. I once won a "greed" roll on a vanguard helm in a group with two vanguards, simply because neither one of them needed it personally and all three of us had companions that could've used it -- hehe, my Corso wore it for almost ten levels. I think it only depends on good communication between players in the group. Those who fail to truly tell me what they're looking for from the group and just greedily grab up every possible bit of loot from the effort will not be players I play with. That's MY choice and MY ignore list to utilize. And I do. 'Nuff said.

My Bounty Hunter was sent to the ship Aurora to kill a Jedi Master, Kellian Jarro. I almost died laughing during the dialogue between my hunter and the Jedi. Jarro: <waves hand> "You will realize what a mistake this is and leave." Me: <waves her own hand, in return> "You will realize what an idiot you are." Fight ensues. Classic.

Merry Christmas, you great gurus at a great company! You've done awesome work, and I applaud you! Have a great one!

The guy I was grouped with last night was ticked off by Corso's grapple. He kept yelling at me to turn it off. I finally stopped and explained, that when Corso used his grapple it helped me determine where the bad guy was going to be. Being sawbones, I use my melee abilities alot, so knowing where the big bad guy is heading is important. Plus, Corso yanks baddies away from my 'CC-ed targets, so I can bomb them safely, hehe. His response: "Oh. Well that makes sense."

I don't know. I'm bummed to lose a few hours of gameplay. But seriously? It's a few hours, the day before full launch. I'm sure there are some motions the company wants to do to ensure tomorrow goes off without a hitch. I'm glad to leave them to it. Figured I'd go to a Christmas party, instead. Sit down with the hubby. Hug the kiddies. Sing silly Christmas carols. Just all round enjoy myself away from the game for just a little bit. IOW, calm down. It'll be back up soon.

Wednesday's almost done, so I figure I'm at least a bit closer to playing the game. Doing happy dances the wait's almost done. Bioware rocks! Life is sweet! Oh, and thanks for a nice thread. Been missing 'em lately, hehe.

You know what? My kids have had "early" Christmas celebrations a couple times over the last ten years. It's happened, that their daddy has deployed over to Iraq, you guess it, on the 24th of December. That, or he's been on road patrol Christmas Eve or Day, so we celebrated a few days early. Heh, that's the life of Army Brats, we say. Thing is, if the neighbor kids run up whining it's not fair our kids get a visit from Santa a little bit early, I remind them that Santa is magic like that. He'll visit the houses that need visiting when it's needed, but everyone will get a visit eventually. They should be grateful Santa came to their house, rather than complain what other little kids are getting, after all.

What's "Boxing Day"? You've lost me.

In the voice of the Sith Inquisitor I played during Beta: Yawn.

My kids complain about Santa taking too long to get here, too.

Unbind?

I didn't have similar issues with the starting companion, actually. Mind you, I like him alot, so that might have something to do with it. But seriously: All in all, I thought the smuggler story was very well done. I am only gratified I didn't actually finish it before the end of the Beta. It'll be fun as heck to take it through to the end, I'm so excited at the chance.