What is the Appeal of the Empire?

[Brutalisateur]

I made a SW and a JK last night and played the prologue. The Jedi intro is just so damn boring and generic, you dont really need to look for another explanation as to why people would rather play Empire.

 

even if you have to put up with a lot of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StupidEvil

[ratty]

Probably because, whether we like it or not, many of us have that little dark streak within us and the thought of being able to play a character where you can unleash that dark streak is just so tempting that it's impossible to resist.

 

Go my Passionate Sith. Destroy and unleash chaos on everyone. <insert evil maniacal laughter>

 

I always feel better after a good bit of playing with a more evil streak. It's just more fun.

[TapSumBatt]

The Sith is cooler and also easier to relate to.

 

I heard someone using the term "Devout Priest" when talking about Jedis and I agree - who can relate to that?

 

The Sith is about human passion and power. Easier to relate to and more intriguing.

[Selerzz]

Everything is about order and discipline. Its a very militaristic society where you can rise to great heights if you put enough effort to it. Its Pro-Human and regards other aliens as untrustworthy and inferior which would probably be the case if we discovered other species in the future. Its a society where the strong rule over the weak to ensure maximum efficency. If you don't think this is fair go ahead and challenge your superior which is acceptable in the Empire.

 

Also the Empire is ruled by an immortal and all-knowing Emperor who has built the Sith Empire from nothing after the former one got destroyed. If you were to choose which would you want? An all-knowing Emperor with a hand-picked council or a corrupt and unefficent senate? Order and stability is what i believe in.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Selerzz

[ProfessorWalsh]

Everything is about order and discipline. Its a very militaristic society where you can rise to great heights if you put enough effort to it.

 

Unless you aren't Force Sensitive. If you aren't you can never rise to real power in the Empire. Ever.

 

Its Pro-Human and regards other aliens as untrustworthy and inferior which would probably be the case if we discovered other species in the future. Its a society where the strong rule over the weak to ensure maximum efficency. If you don't think this is fair go ahead and challenge your superior which is acceptable in the Empire.

 

Unless you aren't a Sith at which point if your superior is a Sith you can't challenge him and he can kill you, and your family, and face no consequences.

 

Also the Empire is ruled by an immortal and all-knowing Emperor who has built the Sith Empire from nothing after the former one got destroyed. If you were to choose which would you want? An all-knowing Emperor with a hand-picked council or a corrupt and unefficent senate? Order and stability is what i believe in.

 

Hardly all-knowing and since all of the Dark Council are Sith then we don't wonder if they are corrupted they simply are corrupted.

 

There is no order or stability within the Empire as clearly evidenced with all of the catastrophic infighting.

Edited July 18, 2012 by ProfessorWalsh

[Jaigen]

Unless you aren't Force Sensitive. If you aren't you can never rise to real power in the Empire. Ever.

 

 

 

Unless you aren't a Sith at which point if your superior is a Sith you can't challenge him and he can kill you, and your family, and face no consequences.

 

 

 

Hardly all-knowing and since all of the Dark Council are Sith then we don't wonder if they are corrupted they simply are corrupted.

 

There is no order or stability within the Empire as clearly evidenced with all of the catastrophic infighting.

 

Its still better then the republic

[ProfessorWalsh]

Its still better then the republic

 

No. No it isn't.

 

In the Republic you don't have to worry about being enslaved.

In the Republic you don't have to worry about being murdered because you scuffed a Jedi's boots.

In the Republic if a politician is revealed to be corrupted the politician can be removed from power.

In the Republic anyone who has the drive, talent, intellect, and skill has a chance of becoming Supreme Chancellor.

 

Is the Republic perfect? No.

 

Is it more stable and does it last a lot longer than the Empire? Oh yes. Yes indeed.

[Captain_Zone]

Unless you aren't Force Sensitive. If you aren't you can never rise to real power in the Empire. Ever.

 

Keeper/Minister of Intelligence. To say he doesn't have real power is a misnomer. He decides who lives and who dies. He does what he has to do to keep the Empire safe. He can talk back to a Sith Lord and get away with it. He just does it in a very diplomatic way. Extremely competent. Very charismatic. Cares about the citizens of the Empire. Quite possibly the most intelligent and intelligently written character in the game. Not an ounce of Force power in him.

 

 

The ONLY reason Intelligence gets dissolved and restructured is because of The Star Cabal's machinations. Even then, he has a plan in place to deal with it.

 

Edited July 18, 2012 by Captain_Zone

[ProfessorWalsh]

Keeper/Minister of Intelligence. To say he doesn't have real power is a misnomer. He decides who lives and who dies. He does what he has to do to keep the Empire safe. He can talk back to a Sith Lord and get away with it. He just does it in a very diplomatic way. Extremely competent. Very charismatic. Cares about the citizens of the Empire. Quite possibly the most intelligent and intelligently written character in the game. Not an ounce of Force power in him.

 

 

The ONLY reason Intelligence gets dissolved and restructured is because of The Star Cabal's machinations. Even then, he has a plan in place to deal with it.

 

Uhm no.

 

The Minister of Intelligence as stated in the TOR novels cannot talk back to or refuse an order by a Sith Lord. They can murder him if they wish with no consequences what so ever.

[Kyriosgundam]

So, maybe it's just me, but a general pattern I've seen is that people tend to favor the Empire over the Republic. On my own server, I would estimate that Imps outnumber Pubs about 1.8 to 1.

 

For those of you who only roll Imp or who have an Imp for a main, what's your reasoning behind rolling Imp?

 

Also, for reference, my main is a Smuggler/Scoundrel, and I've rolled a Knight/Guardian and an Inquisitor/Assassin as my alts.

 

I play an Assassin as my main simply because I like the Story for the character class. I play as the Republic side as well I like the Jedi Knight and Jedi Councilar's stories too. I will end up playing as all the classes at some point reguardless of faction, but I would have to say that the SI, IA, JK, and JC stories intrest me the best so far.

[Sinemetu]

I think it's more interesting to play a character that's a good person in a corrupt system. (Or at least, as good as a person as you can be if you're working for the Empire.)

 

Agreed. And, I think it's ironic that a LS Sith Warrior feels a lot more like a romanticized knight than a LS Jedi Knight.

 

@ProfessorWalsh: Arguing that Keeper has no real power (or, for that matter, the IA and the rest of intelligence) just makes you look ignorant. Kaliyo would just laugh at you. Maybe you should consider how it is that, despite the fact that theoretically any high-ranking Sith could kill Keeper, he's still alive and still pulling strings.

[ProfessorWalsh]

Agreed. And, I think it's ironic that a LS Sith Warrior feels a lot more like a romanticized knight than a LS Jedi Knight.

 

@ProfessorWalsh: Arguing that Keeper has no real power (or, for that matter, the IA and the rest of intelligence) just makes you look ignorant. Kaliyo would just laugh at you. Maybe you should consider how it is that, despite the fact that theoretically any high-ranking Sith could kill Keeper, he's still alive and still pulling strings.

 

It isn't ignorant to bow to the canon. The canon says that he doesn't and that he cannot talk back to or refuse an order from a Sith Lord. Therefore he has limited power. The only reason he's still alive and pulling strings is because he has protection via another Sith Lord or nobody else has figured out what he is doing.

 

Note:

If you have to sneak around and hide your actions all the time then you don't have any real power.

 

Basically lore-wise...

 

If you aren't a Sith in the Sith Empire then you are nothing. You are less than nothing.

Edited July 19, 2012 by ProfessorWalsh

[myolinyr]

It isn't ignorant to bow to the canon. The canon says that he doesn't and that he cannot talk back to or refuse an order from a Sith Lord. Therefore he has limited power. The only reason he's still alive and pulling strings is because he has protection via another Sith Lord or nobody else has figured out what he is doing.

 

Note:

If you have to sneak around and hide your actions all the time then you don't have any real power.

 

Basically lore-wise...

 

If you aren't a Sith in the Sith Empire then you are nothing. You are less than nothing.

 

^this.

 

I would also like to add that Keeper is the exception and not the rule. But yes, he can still be merc'd.

[Jenzali]

"War is delightful to those who have had no experience of it"

-Erasmus

 

The Sith are selfish with no regard for others, lazy taking the easiest path, and kill people randomly on a whim.

 

Real people have obligatons to others, need to work for a living, and need to abide by the law.

 

It's easy to see why it's a popular escapism from real life. You can roleplay as a character who expresses and acts on their emotions, while most emotions are heavily shunned by society in real life (especially if you are a man). The average person is probably suppressing their emotions all day, so following a strict Jedi code and doing so even more may not be appealing to them.

 

Personally, I like both sides equally, and my alignment is usually neutral except for the Jedi Consular (pure light) and Sith Inquisitor (pure dark), just because the storywriting for those two didn't really allow for a convincing story with the opposite, or neutral alignment.

 

I also notice on days where I have acted more extroverted in real life, I tend to come home and play my Jedi characters to feel some inner peace. If I am frustrated at work or school and didn't talk to anyone I'll play my Sith and go around choking everyone.

 

It all comes down to how you want your escapist fantasy to be. I'd be willing to bet that due to unrealistic expectations for suppressing emotions in western society, most gamers would want to play an emotionally expressive or unstable character.

 

However, the Empire does however suffer from having a lot of "ForTheEvulz" characters which are not convincing at all as people most can relate to. And anyone really saying that they'd rather live in the Empire than the Republic if they were real is just downright daft You'd most likely end up dead or enslaved within a week for accidentally bumping into a Sith Lord or parking your speeder in the wrong place.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForTheEvulz

Edited July 19, 2012 by Jenzali

[Captain_Zone]

Uhm no.

 

The Minister of Intelligence as stated in the TOR novels cannot talk back to or refuse an order by a Sith Lord. They can murder him if they wish with no consequences what so ever.

 

Ok, "Professor", I for one am tired of your condescending attitude toward anyone whose opinion differs from yours. Your attitude says "I'm the foremost authority on Star Wars who ever lived." Well, you sir, are NOT the foremost authority on Star Wars who ever lived. That goes to either George Lucas or Leland Chee. My money is on Leland, who actually knows what goes on in the Expanded Universe, as opposed to George who "never reads that stuff."

 

Your arguments are very slanted towards the Jedi. Ok, we get it. You're a Jedi fan. Good for you. Does that make you right 100% of the time? No. To come right out and say something will never happen, or to say that something is the only way it could happen while passing your opinion off as fact is just wrong. You of all people should know that. And I've already seen instances of when you've misinterpreted actual literature to suit your own views (The Great Hyperspace War). Well, news flash for you: The Republic isn't the shining beacon you make it out to be. And another news flash for you: Not ALL Sith are evil. Just because you want them to be, doesn't make it so. The vast majority of Sith? Yes. ALL Sith? No.

 

To be fair, I'm not belittling your opinion. But if you want to be taken seriously, I recommend you actually work on your people skills some, and stop posting your opinions as fact.

 

Oh, and as to the game itself, Keeper actually does talk back to a Sith Lord. Unless that's NOT Canon. If so, post your proof or don't post anything at all. I'm not taking your word on it.

[phantom_jeri]

The Sith culture is a mystery to me, as a SWToR player whose only SW knowledge was what was shown on the six-part movie series. Thus the interest to know more about it, and me choosing Imperial characters.

 

Or possibly because of the way that the empire side was "sold" before launch. They just look much cooler than the reps.

[Jiating]

Ok, "Professor", I for one am tired of your condescending attitude toward anyone whose opinion differs from yours. Your attitude says "I'm the foremost authority on Star Wars who ever lived." Well, you sir, are NOT the foremost authority on Star Wars who ever lived. That goes to either George Lucas or Leland Chee. My money is on Leland, who actually knows what goes on in the Expanded Universe, as opposed to George who "never reads that stuff."

 

Your arguments are very slanted towards the Jedi. Ok, we get it. You're a Jedi fan. Good for you. Does that make you right 100% of the time? No. To come right out and say something will never happen, or to say that something is the only way it could happen while passing your opinion off as fact is just wrong. You of all people should know that. And I've already seen instances of when you've misinterpreted actual literature to suit your own views (The Great Hyperspace War). Well, news flash for you: The Republic isn't the shining beacon you make it out to be. And another news flash for you: Not ALL Sith are evil. Just because you want them to be, doesn't make it so. The vast majority of Sith? Yes. ALL Sith? No.

 

To be fair, I'm not belittling your opinion. But if you want to be taken seriously, I recommend you actually work on your people skills some, and stop posting your opinions as fact.

 

Oh, and as to the game itself, Keeper actually does talk back to a Sith Lord. Unless that's NOT Canon. If so, post your proof or don't post anything at all. I'm not taking your word on it.

 

That is par for the course with him. Just ignore him. He may think of them as facts, but its just another opinion in a sea of opinions. No reason to get upset at his or any others.

[ProfessorWalsh]

Ok, "Professor", I for one am tired of your condescending attitude toward anyone whose opinion differs from yours. Your attitude says "I'm the foremost authority on Star Wars who ever lived." Well, you sir, are NOT the foremost authority on Star Wars who ever lived. That goes to either George Lucas or Leland Chee. My money is on Leland, who actually knows what goes on in the Expanded Universe, as opposed to George who "never reads that stuff."

 

Your arguments are very slanted towards the Jedi. Ok, we get it. You're a Jedi fan. Good for you. Does that make you right 100% of the time? No. To come right out and say something will never happen, or to say that something is the only way it could happen while passing your opinion off as fact is just wrong. You of all people should know that. And I've already seen instances of when you've misinterpreted actual literature to suit your own views (The Great Hyperspace War). Well, news flash for you: The Republic isn't the shining beacon you make it out to be. And another news flash for you: Not ALL Sith are evil. Just because you want them to be, doesn't make it so. The vast majority of Sith? Yes. ALL Sith? No.

 

To be fair, I'm not belittling your opinion. But if you want to be taken seriously, I recommend you actually work on your people skills some, and stop posting your opinions as fact.

 

Oh, and as to the game itself, Keeper actually does talk back to a Sith Lord. Unless that's NOT Canon. If so, post your proof or don't post anything at all. I'm not taking your word on it.

 

I don't care if you take my word for anything. Your opinion of me ranks very low on my list of priorities to be honest.

 

Now... You keep confusing LORE AND CANON with an OPINION. LORE and CANON are statements of fact. Learn it. Love it. Accept it.

 

Now, and this is only friendly advice... Your people skills need far more work than my own do. However that is a discussion for another time. Zone, you and I are obviously incompatible. Thus I am simply choosing to cease any and all further discussion with you. I won't see your posts and I recommend that you don't reply to mine anymore as I won't be able to see them.

Edited July 19, 2012 by ProfessorWalsh

[Sinemetu]

It isn't ignorant to bow to the canon. The canon says that he doesn't and that he cannot talk back to or refuse an order from a Sith Lord. Therefore he has limited power. The only reason he's still alive and pulling strings is because he has protection via another Sith Lord or nobody else has figured out what he is doing.

 

Note:

If you have to sneak around and hide your actions all the time then you don't have any real power.

 

Basically lore-wise...

 

If you aren't a Sith in the Sith Empire then you are nothing. You are less than nothing.

 

Actually, concluding that if you don't have *all* power you have *no* power is pretty ignorant of life and how the world works in general. It's possible to have someone in a position of authority over you--even many people--and still have real power. Maybe even more than they do.

 

Power--real power--isn't about lording around and making people jump. It's about controlling events to go the way you want them to, and even when things go wrong, being able to salvage something. Keeper does exactly that.

[Cavell]

Actually, concluding that if you don't have *all* power you have *no* power is pretty ignorant of life and how the world works in general. It's possible to have someone in a position of authority over you--even many people--and still have real power. Maybe even more than they do.

 

Power--real power--isn't about lording around and making people jump. It's about controlling events to go the way you want them to, and even when things go wrong, being able to salvage something. Keeper does exactly that.

 

This.

 

The suggestion that having to sneak around and be covert means you don't have any power is probably one of the more asinine things I've read here, and that's saying something, considering someone once wrote an absurdly self-aggrandizing, "I stood up to a Star Wars author at a bookstore signing!" post.

 

Countless powers behind the throne would argue strongly that power is the ability to project your will, and whether you do it openly or in secret has little ultimate influence on the actual level of power you have.

 

As far as appeals to the authority of Star Wars canon go, incidentally, I think the only thing one needs to say to sum up how useless it is to try and invoke Word of God is, "Greedo, it turns out, shot first."

[DarthCDiv]

I don't particularly prefer the empire I just prefer the Sith over the Jedi. But, I have 50's on both sides and really for me it comes down to how I feel like playing my character. I have a ls sith warrior and ds jedi knight. Within the context of my choices and character storyline, their alignment makes sense.

[Raltar]

I play Empire because the Imperial Agent is better than the Smuggler. I can't stand the Smuggler. Though, my first and favorite character is the Jedi Sage(story and companions), but I just don't like the mechanics(which also applies to the Sith Sorcerer, but I'm not a big fan of the storyline, so yeah).

[rygelnightstar]

I support neither the Empire or the Republic, I rolled a Chiss Ascendancy character, so i had to be imperial to start lol.

[Captain_Zone]

I don't care if you take my word for anything. Your opinion of me ranks very low on my list of priorities to be honest.

 

Now... You keep confusing LORE AND CANON with an OPINION. LORE and CANON are statements of fact. Learn it. Love it. Accept it.

 

Now, and this is only friendly advice... Your people skills need far more work than my own do. However that is a discussion for another time. Zone, you and I are obviously incompatible. Thus I am simply choosing to cease any and all further discussion with you. I won't see your posts and I recommend that you don't reply to mine anymore as I won't be able to see them.

 

Do YOU have direct access to the Holocron? Do YOU know exactly what's Canon and what isn't? If so, PROVE IT. Otherwise, it's just your opinion. Welcome to my ignore list, "Professor". Enjoy your permanent stay.

[Captain_Zone]

That is par for the course with him. Just ignore him. He may think of them as facts, but its just another opinion in a sea of opinions. No reason to get upset at his or any others.

 

Figured that out. He's now perma-ignored so he can't tell me what my opinion should be.