Frostbird Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Warning! This is going to be a little TL/DR. So, when I first started playing I rolled Republic. I thought that this game would follow the usual MMO pattern - roll good guys if you want to pve, roll bad guys if you want to pvp (and wait in long queues to do it). I was amazed to find that on my server (one of the biggest PvE) this was not the case - both PvE'ers and PvP'ers were rolling and rerolling on Empire. I was surprised, but after a while I found myself doing the same. Why? Well, here are a few thoughts. Keep in mind that most of this is going to be rather subjective. 1) Perception. From the start there has been a strong perception that the Empire side is just better - and for a long time it was correct. Skill differences and mirror imbalances made Empire the smart choice for min/maxers. And where the min/maxers go, others follow - and where the majority goes, well, most people are included. 2) Characters <Note, this may contain mild spoilers. Will tag biggies, but it's going to be a mess if I tag all of them, so if you are worried skip ahead to 3 please). I started as a Jedi Shadow, looking forward to a campaign of diplomacy, 'good' assasinations, spying and infiltration. What I got was a bland story designed for a female healer. I slogged though. I then rolled a Trooper, got to Tatooine and got bored. I then rolled Jedi Knight and enjoyed it a little more, until I hit mid coruscant (see later). I then proceeded to go Empire and rolled a Juggernaut, an Inquisitor and a Bounty Hunter, two of which were *amazing* in comparison and one was just better. One of the big problems for me had to do with the Dark/Light choices in this game. To be pure Dark as a Jedi I needed to be a swaggering bully, an absolute moron and a coward. To be pure Light (which I would expect would be the majority here), I needed to be bipolar. For example - early on in my Shadow's campaign I was given a choice between ratting out two Jedi lovers or letting them go. Feeling sorry for them, I kept their secret - and was given dark side points. So, a little later, I was given an option whether or not to rat out another jedi student for cheating in a test. I chose to do so....and got dark side points. Ahahahaha!!!!!!111 On the other hand, my Sith Warrior and Bounty hunter were played pure Light/Dark respectively, which felt not only natural at both sides of the spectrum but was generally believeable and enjoyable. As a Jedi, playing naturally ended up as a neutral 'grey' which is all well and good, but since the Neutral perks/gear do not exist this was rather a pain in the posterior. 2.5) Immersion This leads to big immersion issues regarding my character. I am not a roleplayer, but in a game like this I do like to at least become attached to my avatar. On my Jedi, I found myself choosing the 'correct' answer to boost my alignment score. On my Sith, I found myself playing the class naturally. Eventually a put it to a test. I took my Shadow and my Sith Warrior and tried to (as a wonderful reviewer of the Star Wars films put it) "tell myself what I knew about them without talking about their powers, appearance or job". My Shadow, at level 50. - He is a Jedi. - He is some kind of spy or infiltrator, even though he spends a lot of his time doing a healer job. For some reason. - He...is a bad Jedi (since he took a romance option). And there I fell short. My Warrior, at level 30. - He is a gifted pupil who had a hard life before graduating as a Sith. - He has a something of a death wish and dislikes his master intently, often goading him. - He has a vicious temper when riled, but for the most part is honorable and does not kill unless he has to. - He despises bootlickers, cowards and sadists. - He has a soft spot for the weak, especially when they try to stand up for themselves. - He also has a soft spot for Vette. I could keep going. Why is it that my Sith, from playing him naturally, feels much 'realer' and human? And why is it that I could play him totally the opposite alignment and *still* have him feel real? Also - see 6) 3) The Ilum Fiasco. Others have put it well enough. A big problem occurred whereby Empire pvpers were able to gain a big gear advantage over Republic players on several servers, leading to a snowball effect as they won more games, causing more players to cross over. 4) Coruscant. I don't know if I am alone in this one, but the 10-25 stretch on both sides was horrible. Lots of fluff, waaaay to much walking around. However, while the Empire's choice (Kaas) was bland and boring, Coruscant was abysmal. It was lame. It was tedious. It was ugly. It was way too big. Missions were grindy as hell. It was a rabbit warren. I have never been so relieved to get off a planet (included Taris and Nar Shaddaa). 5) Companions. Again, subjective to me, but on my three classes from each side the NPCs were much more interesting to me - in particular the *most* important companion - your first one (since Bioware thought it would be smart to stick you with one companion for your first 25 hours). On Empire, Vette was a cute, sassy Robin to the brooding Batman of my Juggernaut. Mako was a touch annoying...but having a healer as my first class was just AWESOME and her storyline got *very* interesting down the line. Khem Val was ghastly, but at least funny from time to time (and Ashara...phwoar). On the other hand, Qyckymart (the big lizard guy, whatever the hell his name was) was boring and dumb. Kira was cute but nowhere near as interesting as Vette. The cat guy on my trooper (even forgot his name) was...flatline in terms of how much impression he made on me. Our characters develop alongside our companions in RPGs, and when they aren't interesting it's much harder to 'get into' things. 6) Huttball. This was a great idea in theory. Long pvp queues due to faction imbalance? Well, go and break some skulls in a same faction BG. The only problem is that on most imbalanced servers in other games, queue times at least help the situation to self correct to a degree (as once they get to a certain length some people cross over to avoid them). Now there is no reason *not* to play Empire. Some solutions: I personally think the situation has gone beyond the point where it will resolve itself naturally. There needs to be some kind of intervention and incentive for playing Republic. I don't want to see the game imbalanced, but some kind of reward for playing the underdog faction would be nice. For example: A % buff to Commendation/gear drops, PvP token gains, xp gains and cash drops on the underpopulated side that scales according to the degree of imbalance could help matters. Honestly, I can't think of anything better. TL/DR Why did you choose the faction you did? What can be done to equalize the numbers of players on Empire/Republic? Is this something that Bioware should concern themselves with? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaphik Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Why did you choose the faction you did? What can be done to equalize the numbers of players on Empire/Republic? Is this something that Bioware should concern themselves with? I chose Republic because Jedi have always been awesome to me, ever since the original Star Wars came out. There's nothing that can be done to equalize the number between the faction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzljug Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) My guild made me do it Edited February 6, 2012 by pzljug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabrass Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I chose Republic because Jedi have always been awesome to me, ever since the original Star Wars came out. There's nothing that can be done to equalize the number between the faction. I chose Republic because i liked the look of the smuggler/trooper/consular more than their empire counterparts. Had the Empire had better looking IA armor i would probably be playing Empire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhijn Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 My very first character was Republic aswell, Jedi Guardian. Got him all the way to 34... Then i tried the Sith Warrior just to check my counter part's story. I was quite suprised how much better it felt, how much better the story was. Stuck with it to 50 and never really looked back to my republic roots, that and most rep have either quited, change server or rolled imp on my server. They all seem to have vanished. =/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PibbyPib Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) I generally go for the least-played class/faction, so I ended up playing a Scoundrel. Edited February 6, 2012 by PibbyPib Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nyysjan Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 i picked empire to play agent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostbird Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 I generally go for the least-played class/faction, so I ended up playing a Scoundrel. I am also a sufferer of Special Snowflake Syndrome! But Smug and Operative just do *not* appeal to me for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_of_Stone Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 My Shadow, at level 50. - He is a Jedi. - He is some kind of spy or infiltrator, even though he spends a lot of his time doing a healer job. For some reason. - He...is a bad Jedi (since he took a romance option). And there I fell short. I dont think you have a level 50 consular if thats all you list. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genesiser Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I didn't know what I was going to choose so when I was messing around with the character creation I listened to the voice of each class, male and female. I decided on republic trooper because the female version is the same voice as my female shepard in mass effect. I heard that and I was like, awesome. And that's how I decided to play republic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddballEasyEight Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I picked empire because i cant play a bounty hunter on the republic side. simple as that. what could be done about it? oh i dont know... let bounty hunters play on the republic side? because im certainly not going to play trooper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord_of_Stone Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I have all 8 characters, but I will tell you why I chose to play the Imperial Agent first, and the Jedi Consular second. During the beta I was faced with a decision: To pick a class I would inevitably play again. So I decided on imperial agent, thinking it was the least interesting. I was wrong. I got to 25ish and fell in love with it. When I got my hands on the game, I simply HAD to finish it. I got it to 38, and then stopped, as my friend started playing. From there, I played the Jedi Consular with my friend, both leveling all the way to 50. I chose Jedi consular as well because I thought it was a boring and uninteresting class. And again, I was wrong. In some ways, it surpassed the Imperial Agent. In no way did I consider player population or any subsidiary results of my decision. Since both my IA and JC are now 50, I am currently playing the Trooper, which I also find very cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VenthiosLestaran Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I chose Empire because I like the story aspects of being a Sith. Also, Kel'Dor wasn't available, nor was Nautolan. So my wife and I were pretty peeved, so we decided on Sith because they had more interesting races. (So makes none of the sense.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dire-Wolf Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I chose Empire because it looked more interesting, I've never been much of a fan of the Jedi Order or SW's Republic and because the Republic classes looked really boring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atheelogos Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 My first was a consular and I played it for a few hours but it got boring. I wanted to play a Sith Pureblood and eventually the urge got to me so I played a sith warrior. Played until 34 and loved it. Then I went back and created a Jedi Knight. Got to 19 and decided to role a inquisitor. ..... Dark side is just more fun.... and has better dialogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stephenjohnp Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I've create a level 50 on both the Republic and Empire. It simply came down to this: The Republic gear is the most God awful looking gear is the Universe. /thread Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostbird Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 I've create a level 50 on both the Republic and Empire. It simply came down to this: The Republic gear is the most God awful looking gear is the Universe. /thread Sith Inquisitor is worse, trust me (although Jedi Knight is an abomination). Oh, and speaking of races...I *really* want a playable Cathar ^_^. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PibbyPib Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I am also a sufferer of Special Snowflake Syndrome! But Smug and Operative just do *not* appeal to me for some reason. lol, that's exactly what it is. There are a lot of nice side-perks, like being able to get gear easily, but it really is more about wanting to seem special, lol. I hated the Scoundrel at first. But eventually the snowflake syndrome changed my mind about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folgrin Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I choose empire because I played through the KOTOR series as a Jedi most of the time. I felt the option to be an Imperial was new and exciting. Not to mention I love Sith lore (which I feel needs to be utilized more). Not to mention the republican side is so "goody to shoes" its nauseating. Its just over the top imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightmaguz Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 "I was given an option whether or not to rat out another jedi student for cheating in a test. I chose to do so....and got dark side points. Ahahahaha!!!!!!111" You got dark side points because you helped him, if you tell the master what happens you actually get light side points I remember that very well and have done it 4 times now,(damn you beta!) that was either a lie or your memory is hazy. "On my Jedi, I found myself choosing the 'correct' answer to boost my alignment score." My Guardian has about 800 dark side points because I played how I thought I should instead of min/max'ing, perhaps if you did the same? "I could keep going. Why is it that my Sith, from playing him naturally, feels much 'realer' and human? And why is it that I could play him totally the opposite alignment and *still* have him feel real? Also - see 6)" Because Jedi are monks who try to control their lives and emotions in order to attune themselves with the light side of the force? Their philosophy is inherently contrary to human base desires, while the Sith revel in it. Most people would take revenge on someone who made them great harm if allowed, the Jedi wouldn't. It takes extraordinary amount of willpower to pull that off. Well, I picked Republic because Jedi Guardian is win, that much is enough. I'm also playing a Marauder now and have no such notion as "faction pride" or loyalty at all but Rep is my favorite side by far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tocaseven Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 pearl jam told me to stop mugging old grannies and roll a pantomime villain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostbird Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 "I was given an option whether or not to rat out another jedi student for cheating in a test. I chose to do so....and got dark side points. Ahahahaha!!!!!!111" You got dark side points because you helped him, if you tell the master what happens you actually get light side points I remember that very well and have done it 4 times now,(damn you beta!) that was either a lie or your memory is hazy. "On my Jedi, I found myself choosing the 'correct' answer to boost my alignment score." My Guardian has about 800 dark side points because I played how I thought I should instead of min/max'ing, perhaps if you did the same? "I could keep going. Why is it that my Sith, from playing him naturally, feels much 'realer' and human? And why is it that I could play him totally the opposite alignment and *still* have him feel real? Also - see 6)" Because Jedi are monks who try to control their lives and emotions in order to attune themselves with the light side of the force? Their philosophy is inherently contrary to human base desires, while the Sith revel in it. Most people would take revenge on someone who made them great harm if allowed, the Jedi wouldn't. It takes extraordinary amount of willpower to pull that off. Well, I picked Republic because Jedi Guardian is win, that much is enough. I'm also playing a Marauder now and have no such notion as "faction pride" or loyalty at all but Rep is my favorite side by far. Still - why does 'rigid adherence to rules even when it means being whiny, self-righteous tool' mean light side on Jedi while being honorable or merciful give me dark sometimes and light sometimes? Meanwhile on my Sith, if I am honorable, merciful and decent I get lightside points and if I am a psychotic mongoose I get dark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frostbird Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 pearl jam told me to stop mugging old grannies and roll a pantomime villain. ...Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oneirophrenia Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Because being on the same side was that sniveling little whiny brat named Luke Skywalker is too much to bear, even if it is a couple thousand years before his arrival. No but seriously, I think my friends just flipped a coin and I just went along with them since I was too busy to participate at headstart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dee-Jay Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I played a Sith Warrior during the beta weekend and was going to roll one on live too. I actually liked the Sith Storyline and especially Vette. But since I didn't join the game until early January I heard about the massive faction imbalance and decided to side with the underdog. Originally I thought the Empire was going to be less popular but damn was I wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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