It's hard to show off an MMO title within the constraints of a trade show, so I rarely feel like I walk away from such meetings with a good idea of what the game is actually like to play. It was stressed to the press during the game's latest demo that this is a game built on a strong story, and you can play your character however you'd like. In one scene we saw the ramifications of both being merciful and executing an NPC. The idea of an online game with such a rich world and story is appealing.

But what happens if I'm a Jedi who consistently does the wrong thing? Will I ever fall and join the ranks of the Sith? I wanted to find out.

Building a culture versus striking a pose

I sat down with Daniel Erickson, the lead writer of The Old Republic to figure out how your decisions affect your class and your standing among the Jedi or the Sith. If I'm playing a Jedi, is it possible to do so many evil acts that I turn into a Sith character? The movies present the slide as being something chosen by your actions and motivations, but in The Old Republic things are very different.

So what happens if I'm unfailingly evil as a Jedi? Do the Sith try to recruit me? "No, and the reason is... this is a hard one to look at because we made them entire cultures," Erickson told Ars. "The Sith we see [in the movies], even Vader, are not actually Sith, they are harkening back to a tradition from years ago—they are fallen Jedi. The Sith in our game are actually Sith; they are from a different empire that was almost wiped out of existence by the Jedi."

We're getting into some seriously nerdy territory here, but as a Star Wars fan I'm right in my element. I've never thought about it this way: the Sith in the movies were mostly given Jedi training first, and then fell to the dark side and began to call themselves Sith Lords. It's an anachronism more than a title at that point.

"I always take it back to the World War 2 analogy: if you were a very evil British soldier in World War 2, you wouldn't join the Nazis; you were torturing them in the basement," Erickson explained. "You're a bad man, but that doesn't mean you're going to leave your country. You're going to do what you're trying to do in the worst possible way."

The thing is, this goes the other way as well. "This is what's really hard for people to wrap their heads around sometimes. A light-side Sith is going to try to make his horrible screwed-up country better," Erickson said. "A Sith is given, by his society, unlimited power to do whatever he wants unless a stronger Sith can stop him. So a light-side Sith warrior can walk out there and protect the Imperial people, because he thinks the other side is crazy."

I asked him if this is the logical progression to "might makes right," and he nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly, and in our game, it could actually be right." It's a subtle thing: the Sith and the Jedi aren't the good and bad guys; instead, it's more of a cultural distinction this far back in the Star Wars timeline. So you can be a good man and still fight the Jedi, and you can try to end the Sith through evil means. The choice is in your hands, as it should be in games of this scope.

Listing image by Photo illustration by Aurich Lawson, utilizing concept art from Lucasfilm Ltd.