A catch phrase that is only used once isn't a catch phrase. By definition, they become iconic through repeated use. Next time you're playing, try to imagine that every affirmative answer you gave was "yes", every negative was "no" and see just how mind numbingly boring the dialogue would be. The writers cannot force too much personality on the characters because the player wants to be able to make that up for themselves as they go along. Still, they have to give the character SOMETHING that situates it within the story, so they're walking a line between creating half a character and keeping it open enough for the player to fill in the blanks for themselves. The more detailed the dialogue they write for you to say, the less control you have over your character's development in your mind. If they leave things too simple and undefined, the characters would come across as completely empty and would be unable to express any kind of personality in their answers. So they're stuck working with a middle road that gives you some choice, allows the characters to speak, and doesn't take a thousand years to map out and record every possible answer that every single type of person might give. You can't have the functionality of a pen and paper rpg inside a video game, so you pretty much have to be willing to suspend your disbelief and accept stock responses or instead view certain voiced responses as representative of the manner in which your character is responding rather than as exactly what he/she is saying.

The game IS fully voiced. The same clips aren't reused endlessly. Short quips that serve little purpose beyond pushing the dialogue forward are reused because it would be a ridiculous waste of resources to use a different recording of "no" every single time you wanted to reply in the negative. The problem isn't that Bioware pulled a bait and switch, the problem is people like you went insane when you heard about this MMO and pretty much expected it to be real life with lightsabers and were sorely disappointed when the video game didn't succeed in catering to some kind of Jorge Luis Borges type fantasy product. Holodecks don't exist yet, guys.

Voice acting isn't the same thing as voice writing.

"Yippee Ki-Yay, (melon farmer)" "Give me the keys, you (fuzzy sock sucker)" "Watchoo talkin about, Willis?" "Cowabunga" "D'Oh" "Did I do that?" At least, in this game, repetition is a by-product of production constraints inherent in the genre rather than some attempt to create easily recognizable platitudes. If this is causing that much of a problem for you, you may need to re-evaluate your expectations for video game dialogue.

"I'll get right on that" "It's already finished" "I don't see the problem here" "This is going to be an issue" "Mornin" "See you tomorrow" All lines that I tend to reuse with impunity when I'm working. No one ever told me it breaks immersion, though.

I usually play characters that look somewhat like me. I am a fit, wiry, small guy who's kind of on the femmy side in the looks department. So if the game doesn't offer the option of playing a male of slight build, Ill play a boyish female instead.

I chose to play an Operative precisely because the armour looked like that. I love it.

In my first MMO, I rolled Need on something I didn't need because when the window popped up, I thought "Oh, well I don't want to be greedy, so I'll pick the other one" and then I got yelled at so much. If you're in doubt about something your best bet is to ask at the start of a FP, that way everyone agrees and you can find a different group if you dont like how they do things

Companies don't charge you taxes, governments do. Its how they pay for the infrastructure that brought you your game and the education system that raised you to be so whiney and self-important.

GMs in any game generally don't run around looking for offensive names to ban. They instead react to player complaints. If no one is reporting certain names, they could stick around for quite some time. Personally, I report with impunity any name that targets an identifiable class (racist/misogynistic/homophobic/etc) and pretty much don't care about names that are just gross, innuendo, or stupid.

I did. I'm having fun, and it is dirt-cheap entertainment.

The affront of it comes from the conceit that gay relationships are somehow more "adult" oriented simply by virtue of the fact that they are gay. I'm all for toggling all possible relationships (you get all or you get none)if that will make people feel better but not for setting a tiered system whereby queer relationships are "adult content" while straight relationships are "kid-friendly". Yes, kids play video games. And some of those kids are gay too.

This may be a little too carebear for your tastes but: I used to be the tank lead in a guild with more tanks than spots (4 tanks, only two tank spots available) and we set up a rotation system so that everyone got a turn to MT and OT and the other two had a night off. If it was your MT night, you were responsible for setting things up with your partner and determining how things would go. It meant we had to accept a slightly slower progression since we were spreading tank loot among 4 people instead of just 2, but it allowed us to have a buffer so that if we lost one tank for any reason, the other three could carry on. It also allowed all 4 to become experienced and cut down on any kind of diva mentality. We were not pushing for server firsts or anything, so depending on how competitive you are, this may not be ideal. For us it worked great and it allowed more people to play and learn while keeping a reserve of players who didn't have to feel like they were being benched. You may want to suggest adopting something like this, especially if these people have been friends for years. They must trust you by now. Conversely, if there were absolutely no raid spot for me, I'd look for a different place to raid.

Fixed

I do this. My current main is a Zabrak BH and when I made him I thought he looked cute with the orange skin and the little topknot. And about 10 levels ago I started getting this gnawing feeling that I wanted him to be exactly the same except red. And it's been bugging me more and more ever since.

Cover up your bad will, please. Think of the children!

Its the version that came with a Fabrege Egg.

I'm saying it already would be optional.

I don't know much about Star Wars and I didn't really like any of the movies (I've seen 5 and never bothered to see the return of the sith) because they all felt pretty boring. I love the story in the game though, and the writers have done an excellent job of revealing information through story and journal entries. I keep wanting to go look up some of the stuff that I don't quite know about, but for now I'm happy waiting and seeing what all will be revealed by the time I'm 50.

There already is a setting built into the game to keep you from flirting with NPCs you don't want to flirt with. Its called: Don't flirt with them. It would be a huge insult to put this kind of safety lock over something like same gender romance in a game which routinely asks you to perform acts of violence, torture, sadism, terrorism, and even genocide without the slightest reservation and without any kind of values-based locking mechanism designed to prevent the player from accidentally experiencing it. A lock like you describe essentially says "Yes, there's all kinds of horrible disgusting, and vile stuff in this game. But the worst, the stuff that we're willing to let you pre-emptively protect yourself from, is the idea that people with similar sex organs might kiss." It is not inclusive, nor is it a compromise. It is a slap in the face. And I don't think even the most homophobic people in the world can say with a straight face that torture, murder, and terrorism are even in the same league as romance between consenting adults. Look, no one is asking that the NPCs to don popped-collar shirts and pre-frayed baseball caps and hound your characters with invitations to come over and listen to their new Jack Johnson CD and bro-out with them. You actually have to take the initiative to spark a romance with the NPCs in this game, so just don't do it if you don't want to. For the record, I have yet to accidentally engage in an opposite-sex romance on any of my characters in the game and I know that all the people who don't want to engage in same gender romances in game are smart enough to be able to do the exact same as I did.

My guess is that she's less upset about the fact that you are pushing the flirt button in game and more concerned about how invested you are in your virtual girlfriend.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. We need more grownup situations in this game. I propose a quest linein which a high ranking Sith Lord dies, leaving his estate the child of his first wife. As the child of his second wife, you're left with naught but a small inheritance. And even though your Sith father made your half-brother promise to take care of you, his womanizing and drinking ways get the better of him and his own selfish apprentice convinces him to reneg on his father's dying promise. Your involvement would begin as you set out from the comfort of what was to be your legacy with no one to trust but your sister and widowed mother as you seek out your fortunes in order to marry above your current station, thereby legitimizing your existence. Much of the action of this series would revolve around such things as courting, playing music on the piano, small dogs, harsh winters, and rain storms as well as a need to maintain countenance and propriety at all costs.

If you rebind your zoom buttons to keys it works better. You should be using your scroll wheel for targeting anyway, you bads!

I don't think you can really compare interactive story writing to writing in a more linear video game or in novels and film. In novels, film, and even standard video games, there is a specific character to act as the protagonist. A character with a more or less defined morality, philosophy, and personality. These traits inform the decisions that character makes. In an MMORPG, you simply can't do that because the writers are creating a purposefully unfisnished character. One who's essence is to be filled in by the player over the course of playing. You determine how your character feels, what she thinks, etc. The writers just give you a base archetype to build on, but they then let you do your thing. They cannot account for every possibility, and if they could, then it would be their charcter that you were manipulating instead of your character that you're creating. I really don't know what you're talking about with the whole Light Side points for making someone go dark side, but without the context (which you should probably elaborate on to be able to use that example as evidence) there's really no way of knowing how I would judge that course of action. But I can imagine many scenarios where what you vaguely described wouldn't be terribly evil. Short version: It isn't bad writing, its half-finished writing and its the player's job to finish it.

People complain about these choices alot and I really don't understand it. Part of character development is that if you are an intelligent person, you'll make choices that go against your nature in aid of a long term goal. If you are a brute idiot, you'll succumb to your nature every time regardless of the consequences. Dealing with the consequences and conflicts arising from your actions is what dramatic action is all about. I think you have to decide how you want to play your character. Do you want to only choose LS or DS answers, or do you want to roleplay what your character would do? If you choose to roleplay your character, you will likely have to make up some LS or DS points later on to go full on Dark or Light, but that's what it means to deal with the repercussions of your character's actions. I'm not a roleplayer, but this seems kind of basic to me. Honestly, my only real gripe about the DS/LS choices is that I find DS choices tend to fall into the realm of abject brutality rather than the more interesting Snidely Whiplash, moustache twirling conniving type of evil that that truly wonderful villains exude.