Will Bioware bring playable races that doesn't look like colored humans?

[ZeketheReaper]

Bioware is in my opinion far too concrete about their stance on alien races "ruining" the cinematics. I don't give a flying kowakian monkey lizard about not being able to romance people as a Trandoshan because my face will clip into their during the cutscenes. I don't play star wars to play as a human and have human experiences I can do that in real life or in any other fantasy game. Give us our Non-humans or I'll pretty much have lost all respect I had for Bioware. I believe that just being able to select your favorite species would bring people in or back all on its own. All they have to do is make multiple facial features and colors for 2-4 non human species and people would play again just to level and play as their favorite species. I.E. Trandoshan Bounty hunter, Nautolan Jedi, Mon calamari Smuggler, etc... The models are even already in the game they just need to add some extra customization options and they could easily put those species in the character creator. My 15$ a month would like to be used to pay the Character creation team to make more playable species and I'm sure others would agree that more species would increase subs.

[jgelling]

I don't play star wars to play as a human and have human experiences I can do that in real life or in any other fantasy game. Give us our Non-humans or I'll pretty much have lost all respect I had for Bioware..

 

This is a PSA:

 

If you or someone close to you has had any real life human experiences that in any way resemble the events depicted in SWTOR, you may be suffering from one of the following conditions: dementia, depersonalization disorder, schizophrenia, severe pathological criminality and/or one of those scary side-effects they warn you about in that ad for that drug that prevents nail fungus.

 

Thank you for your time.

Edited May 18, 2012 by jgelling

[Tricky-Ha]

I'd been patiently remaining quiet on this subject for a while hoping that Erickson or some other BioWare fool would admit their defeat & post metrics showing the amount of players out of the millions & millions supposedly playing SWTOR, that they'd show us statistical metrics of how many of us are actually sitting there listening to every bit of dialog instead of space-barring through it or how many of us are pursuing romances with our companions instead of just just ignoring them for anything that isn't combat or crafting related. It's pretty funny cause the VO & romance stuff? That's role-playing & as a role player I'm always being told that I'm the tiniest minority in this or any MMORPG & us role player's will never get catered to.

 

Y'know, at least show us those numbers to prove to us that Erickson was right all along & he knew better than the playerbase knew in what they wanted from SWTOR. Romance with companions & VO were his weapons against adding more exotic alien playable species, where's his follow-up cake to shove in our faces proving that he was right?

Edited May 19, 2012 by Tricky-Ha

[DiabloDoom]

Such a trivial matter.

[Dezzi]

Such a trivial matter.

 

Is it? People have left the game for less.

[Darka]

I was surprised at the lack of iconic and well known star war species not being playable.

I believe the reason Bioware gave was because you have greater attachment to human-like characters

Despite the fact that you would be attached to your character no matter what species if YOU create it.

With many NPCs wearing the armour in game, aswell as speaking basic, it does make you wonder why

[DiabloDoom]

Is it? People have left the game for less.

 

Trivial people.

[Dezzi]

Trivial people.

 

Good arguments and supporting evidence. Good discussion.

[ChaosKirin]

Trivial people.

 

I feel like people who leave the game because they don't like the current PvP state are doing so for trivial matters.

 

I've also declared that I'm right and you're wrong. So now what do we do?

[Jonoku]

Bioware said they wanted more humanoid species. Otherwise if you get a species like a Rodian then you'll have them speaking in native tongue. And I can see a large amount of people complaining hearing alien gibberish every time their toon talks. Other than that I will make an exception playable wookies.

 

It's also very likely that Bioware will add more races as the game grows just like *gasp* any other MMO.

 

I wouldnt be complaining at all about alien gibberish. just as long its not the same alien gibberish it should be unique like in kotor any alien u speak to has the same alien language. rodian and bith had same alien language for example, which proves lazyness.

[Arlbo_Nabbins]

Ahh...BS man, really.

 

Almost every species in the Star Wars galaxy speak Basic, except maybe wookies, Hutts and a few others.

 

And even if they have to speak an alien language in the cutscenes, just make the scene last long enough for us to read the damn dialogue.

 

Agreed, after all every one of my characters seems to be able to understand all languages other than Basic because there are never any problems speaking to a Hutt, Rhodian, Wookie etc.

[rickyard]

After years of designing a game, a ROLE playing game, i can't understand such decissions, that of course justify EVERYTHING:

 

We don't make aliens as anyway not much people will use it. Let's instead do a new move for the jedi knight consular special effect number 46.

We don't make aliens because the gear we have designed will be even more horrible, because it won't fit. The resources will go instead to hire a great actor whose voice is great, it will do a favor to publicity department.

We don't make space battles because anyway it is not important in STAR wars. We instead do a stupid mini-game, and with the resources we are saving we can release the game three months sooner.

We don't make LFG, it would delay the game a month more.

We don't... anyway, WHY DON'T WE DO WOW IN STAR WARS??? it is already designed, so we can concentrate in do VOICES and STORIES... it will be NEXT EVOLUTION in mmo's!!

[Kourage]

We're talking unique SPECIES not RACE.

Or does simple skin color separate a Wookie from a Rodian?

 

All we have are the same humanoid models with different skin color.

 

- DH

 

No, the title states race, not species.

[rickyard]

No, the title states race, not species.

 

I think we all understand the OP, anyway i'd like different species AND of course, races, so i, for example, can use white, brown, black and yellow wookies, green and blue rodians, etc.

 

Because seeing at what the devs call "alien" whatever, we could say that me, as i am brown skinned, am an alien from Spain galaxy, from Catalonia system, exactly from Barcelona planet.

[yoomazir]

I think we all understand the OP, anyway i'd like different species AND of course, races, so i, for example, can use white, brown, black and yellow wookies, green and blue rodians, etc.

 

Because seeing at what the devs call "alien" whatever, we could say that me, as i am brown skinned, am an alien from Spain galaxy, from Catalonia system, exactly from Barcelona planet.

 

 

Well, yeah, alien "races" or "species", it's all the same to me, in the end what I mean is, most aliens in SW are supposed to be something other than copy/paste human model with added tentacles/green color... and the fact that Bioware just gave us that is somehow insulting.

[yoomazir]

Shameless bump, keep this thread alive so Bioware understand what we want, in a probably future 30$ expansion...

[gurugeorge]

People who want to play exotic species is a minority,

 

Uhhh, excuse me? Never mind min-maxing to the majority - what about bloody ARTISTIC INTEGRITY, eh?

 

What about bringing as true a representation of the lore as you can into a game - a lore that was notable from its first appearance on the big screen, for presenting a really good impression of aliens of all sortts of shapes and sizes?

 

The Cantina scene in Star Wars is probably the moment that clinched the deal for lots of Star Wars fans, so I doubt you can seriously claim that only a "minority" who are interested in Star Wars are interested in authentic aliens (as opposed to human forms with alien heads glued on top).

 

Yes, this has always been one of the major minor letdowns in the game (so to speak) - along with lots of little niggles like immediately taking off as soon as you enter your ship, not having a proper community-based space element, not having much integration between ground and space (it's absolutely canonical in Star Wars to have fights that move from ground to space, or vice-versa).

 

Bah. It's just a symptom of this game's odd lack of attention to detail in odd places (there's tons of attention to detail in some areas, but just a curious lackadaisickal feel in others).

 

This game is like a Potemkin village - it looks absolutely great from certain angles, but the longer you live with it and look at it from other angles, the more jerry-built it looks.

Edited May 19, 2012 by gurugeorge

[USMCjv]

Well, yeah, alien "races" or "species", it's all the same to me, in the end what I mean is, most aliens in SW are supposed to be something other than copy/paste human model with added tentacles/green color... and the fact that Bioware just gave us that is somehow insulting.

 

I could not agree with you more! Even if I do love Twi'leks I expected more variety of species.

Edited May 19, 2012 by USMCjv

[Rhysling]

Bioware said they wanted more humanoid species. Otherwise if you get a species like a Rodian then you'll have them speaking in native tongue. And I can see a large amount of people complaining hearing alien gibberish every time their toon talks. Other than that I will make an exception playable wookies.

 

It's also very likely that Bioware will add more races as the game grows just like *gasp* any other MMO.

 

That doesn't sound right, We can play Twileks and as a player they speak the 'common' but every NPC speaks the native tongue. They should just do that with every new race.

[Darth_Halford]

Uhhh, excuse me? Never mind min-maxing to the majority - what about bloody ARTISTIC INTEGRITY, eh?

 

What about bringing as true a representation of the lore as you can into a game - a lore that was notable from its first appearance on the big screen, for presenting a really good impression of aliens of all sortts of shapes and sizes?

 

The Cantina scene in Star Wars is probably the moment that clinched the deal for lots of Star Wars fans, so I doubt you can seriously claim that only a "minority" who are interested in Star Wars are interested in authentic aliens (as opposed to human forms with alien heads glued on top).

 

Yes, this has always been one of the major minor letdowns in the game (so to speak) - along with lots of little niggles like immediately taking off as soon as you enter your ship, not having a proper community-based space element, not having much integration between ground and space (it's absolutely canonical in Star Wars to have fights that move from ground to space, or vice-versa).

 

Bah. It's just a symptom of this game's odd lack of attention to detail in odd places (there's tons of attention to detail in some areas, but just a curious lackadaisickal feel in others).

 

This game is like a Potemkin village - it looks absolutely great from certain angles, but the longer you live with it and look at it from other angles, the more jerry-built it looks.

Bioware is showing more artistic integrity than you're probably aware of.

If you pay any kind of attention to the key stories in Star Wars, wether its the original three, the new trilogy, or the vast ammount of Extended Universe lore that is out there, the protaginist is always a human or "near-human", like the species that are currently present.

 

Yes, the Cantina scene and others like it are great at showing off the great diversity of possibilities that is life in the Star Wars galaxy. However none of them, not even the mighty Chewbacca, do anything all that important.

 

Than there's the ability to identify with the characters, which is what Bioware has actually come out and said pre-dev. In order to have the proper "attention to detail" that you claim is missing, there has to be special attention put towards the fact that the character is not human. Bioware, being first and foremost about story, wanted to create a compelling class-based narrative, rather than one about species.

 

By playing to all of those different factors, Bioware has actually created a game and a narrative that feels very close to that of the original material, thus maintaining their artistic integrity.

Edited May 19, 2012 by Darth_Halford

[Mistress_Ivi]

They should have looked at the starwars game they took off the market 2 days prior to this ones launch.

 

Sullustan (you know, that fugly thing that destroyed the 2nd Deathstar)

Ithorian

Wookiee (note, 2 E's, Seriously)

Trandoshan

Rodian (Hate them, but yeah...)

Bothan (Dog like, in some ways; although ToR draws them differently)

 

^ All of these were options in the previous starwars game... not to mention they have the artwork and different skins to choose Togruta and Cathar in this game, so why don't we have those options?

 

I was looking forward to rolling a Togruta in 1.2, instead I just get the same old -edit- from the other side. Nu uh. Not funny, furthermore... I have to level that to 50, or dish out a mill and a half. Gee.

 

Urgh

[Darth_Halford]

They should have looked at the starwars game they took off the market 2 days prior to this ones launch.

 

Sullustan (you know, that fugly thing that destroyed the 2nd Deathstar)

Ithorian

Wookiee (note, 2 E's, Seriously)

Trandoshan

Rodian (Hate them, but yeah...)

Bothan (Dog like, in some ways; although ToR draws them differently)

 

^ All of these were options in the previous starwars game... not to mention they have the artwork and different skins to choose Togruta and Cathar in this game, so why don't we have those options?

 

I was looking forward to rolling a Togruta in 1.2, instead I just get the same old -edit- from the other side. Nu uh. Not funny, furthermore... I have to level that to 50, or dish out a mill and a half. Gee.

 

Urgh

 

Yes, lets look at a game that had a completly different design philosophy, which also changed several times in order to keep some semblance of profit, and use it to justify things into another game that has almost nothing in common with.

 

Seriously, the only similiarities The Old Republic has with Galaxies is the same franchise. Trying to suggest one game should have done something the other did is akin to suggesting golfers should use wooden clubs because that's what pro baseball players do.

[JeramieCrowe]

Bioware is showing more artistic integrity than you're probably aware of.

If you pay any kind of attention to the key stories in Star Wars, wether its the original three, the new trilogy, or the vast ammount of Extended Universe lore that is out there, the protaginist is always a human or "near-human", like the species that are currently present.

 

Yes, the Cantina scene and others like it are great at showing off the great diversity of possibilities that is life in the Star Wars galaxy. However none of them, not even the mighty Chewbacca, do anything all that important.

 

Than there's the ability to identify with the characters, which is what Bioware has actually come out and said pre-dev. In order to have the proper "attention to detail" that you claim is missing, there has to be special attention put towards the fact that the character is not human. Bioware, being first and foremost about story, wanted to create a compelling class-based narrative, rather than one about species.

 

By playing to all of those different factors, Bioware has actually created a game and a narrative that feels very close to that of the original material, thus maintaining their artistic integrity.

 

This is actually more true than a lot of people here want to admit. I've been asking for more playable species since beta, but this is all true.

Edited May 19, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Runeshard]

Then please elaborate why there are more "exotic" races played in WoW than there are humans? Oh that's right, because not everyone want's to be a fracking human.

 

Can you really count blood elves and night elves though? They are basically pointy eared humans, and in the case of the night elves, with a different skin colour. And dwarves are really just stocky short humans while gnomes are even shorter humans.

[gurugeorge]

Bioware is showing more artistic integrity than you're probably aware of.

If you pay any kind of attention to the key stories in Star Wars, wether its the original three, the new trilogy, or the vast ammount of Extended Universe lore that is out there, the protaginist is always a human or "near-human", like the species that are currently present.

 

Yes, the Cantina scene and others like it are great at showing off the great diversity of possibilities that is life in the Star Wars galaxy. However none of them, not even the mighty Chewbacca, do anything all that important.

 

Than there's the ability to identify with the characters, which is what Bioware has actually come out and said pre-dev. In order to have the proper "attention to detail" that you claim is missing, there has to be special attention put towards the fact that the character is not human. Bioware, being first and foremost about story, wanted to create a compelling class-based narrative, rather than one about species.

 

By playing to all of those different factors, Bioware has actually created a game and a narrative that feels very close to that of the original material, thus maintaining their artistic integrity.

 

Excuses excuses. THE BODIES ARE THE SAME AS HUMAN BODIES, that's what the problem is. It's extremely dull and immersion-killing to be talking to aliens who have exactly the same body shapes as the humans you talk to. At the very least they could have elongated a bit here, changed proportions there, so that you didn't feel you were talking to muscle-bound human body type 3 with an alien head stuck on top.

 

Yes, lots of the aliens are humanoid, but that's a big difference from lazily having the exact same 4 body types that human beings have for every fricken' alien type.