My male cousin (more of a sports guy) is the same -- he wasn't interested in games, esp. MMOs, before he gave KOTOR a try. Now he's hooked onto the series. I like a good romance, but I like gunning down my enemies with blasters and missiles even more. Also, since the romance arc in SWTOR doesn't truly begin until Act 2, I wouldn't suggest mentioning it. For a newbie to plow through 30 levels, only to receive an hour or so of companion dialogue, just isn't worth it if they dislike everything else. Best taken as a boon, rather than a main priority. I have to agree with this. Most of the guys I've been romantically involved with don't share my film or movie tastes. And rarely, do they game at all. I just keep my inner gaming geek to myself. They like politics and history, but I want to look up the latest medical/scientific research. For me, it's important that we have similar worldviews, if not hobbies.

I think these are solid pieces of advice. As a female gamer, this was pretty much how I got into Bioware games, or any non-casual game really. Except I initiated my own introduction by looking over my little brother's shoulders during his playthroughs. While I did enjoy Zelda, Warcraft 3, or WoW, I didn't REALLY love it until Mass Effect and Bioshock. Character creation and immersion helps. After awhile, you tend forget it's a videogame, and see it more like a different (and interactive) medium of telling a story. {I can't tell you all the times I endured those annoying side-quests, just to get a major cut-scene.) All passions and dedications start small, and gradually build up -- no need to freak out if she's not on board for a lengthy online session just yet. On the other hand, some people simply hate non-casual games, no matter how it is introduced. But you'll never know that if you don't try. I was just fortunate I'm inclined towards liking sci-fiction, horror (and fantasy to an extent), so it was easy for me to get involved.

23, Female, California (USA)

Be d@mned if you do, be d@mned if you don't. Anyway, they're aiming for weekly patches instead of the nightly ones. Personally, I think gradual and smaller fixes are better for addressing a larger number of bugs. And if a patch causes another problem, the devs can respond to it immediately. Big patches put too much pressure for the initial release to be perfect and complete. Telling us ahead of time, so we can adjust our gameplay hours, is the best they can do for this option. I'm sure they're working on the larger fixes, but it's nice to not have to wait weeks before they fix the minor, yet annoying problems like getting logged out at the character selection screen.

"Never" or even "rarely" isn't the best way to describe it. From my experience, female PCs have about 10-20% less flirts than males, with the exception of the smuggler class, which seems to be more inclined towards a male POV. Still, it never hurts to ask for additional romance options. Anyway, I agree with the previous posters: it's unfair to compare the monk-like Jedi to the characteristically flirty classes such as the imperial agents and smugglers. There will be obvious differences, male or female.