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All in all, compared to the elaborative conversation trees you can have with companions in the likes of Dragon Age 1 or even 2, what we have here in SWTOR feels, at least to me, like RPG Lite-mode, heavy on apologetic brevity lest anyone with a 5 second attention span be reduced to a vein-throbbing "Why my doodz alwayz talk so much W T F!?!".



That is, at least, the impression I'm recurringly and strongly given. The Jedi Knight opening area of Tython, for example, and your new Knight's involvement with your new master from there and beyond; all I can ask is, what involvement?



Spoiler tagged bits for those that haven't played the Jedi Knight arc and don't want spoilers.



Spoiler You're taken as a padawan, you run around and do a couple of obligatory establish-the-plot-framework things and next thing you know, there's nothing more he can teach you and bam, you're a Knight. Much later, when dramatic things happen with your old master and he dies, if you're me, you're quite possibly left wondering why you, the player, should really care, as you don't actually know diddly wozzit about him anyway.



Almost everything of substance in developing a lot of these characters, romanceable and otherwise, is left off-screen, implied and largely handwaved. What we're presented with and given to see are only the obligatory indicators that persons A, B, C and D are supposed to be important because of reasons.



Now, I can see a possible reason for why it was done this way. It could well be that a lot of that was left off-screen (and I'm not just talking about romance-oriented affairs here. Minds out of the gutter!) as an invitation to the player to fill in their own blanks however they like with the bare framings presented while, at the same time, not forcing more than 5-20 second soundbites on those that would prefer to be playing Spreadsheet Wars: The Other Raidgame and get a neurotic twitch nearabouts the corners of their eyes if anything not optimally conducive to improving their gear is thrust upon them.



I imagine that the devs have good cause to try to not alienate anybody no matter their playstyle (within reason) and I can well see how deep, winding and elaborate character interactions could exasperate some.



However...that's still fairly well the tone they've set, in my regard of SWTOR. Heavy reliance on story, narrative and characterization as a primary draw is a stated selling point, though if you scratch the surfaces too much, you're likely to find that there's not much other than those surfaces to begin with.



All in all, it looks to me like a classic case of trying to please everyone and offend no one resulting in everyone getting a rather hollow shell of whatever they might be here for.



That's just my take on it, of course. Those hollow shells might gradually take on more than one thin dimension as the game matures, of course, but I'd realistically consider the timeframe of that becoming noticeable to probably be years, and done in tiny, tentatively tested increments so as to be sure that nobody is alienated somehow.



I don't know if I'm being realistic or cynical in that expectation. I suppose I see no reason why those would be mutually exclusive either though, so, that said, there's that for that; my opinion. I think it would be neat to see a deeper involvement between the MC and the NPC's that are supposed to be at least potentially important to them. Almost all of the interactions our characters have with even romanceable companions are a handful of soundbites.All in all, compared to the elaborative conversation trees you can have with companions in the likes of Dragon Age 1 or even 2, what we have here in SWTOR feels, at least to me, like RPG Lite-mode, heavy on apologetic brevity lest anyone with a 5 second attention span be reduced to a vein-throbbing "Why my doodz alwayz talk so much W T F!?!".That is, at least, the impression I'm recurringly and strongly given. The Jedi Knight opening area of Tython, for example, and your new Knight's involvement with your new master from there and beyond; all I can ask is, what involvement?Spoiler tagged bits for those that haven't played the Jedi Knight arc and don't want spoilers.Almost everything of substance in developing a lot of these characters, romanceable and otherwise, is left off-screen, implied and largely handwaved. What we're presented with and given to see are only the obligatory indicators that persons A, B, C and D are supposed to be important because of reasons.Now, I can see a possible reason for why it was done this way. It could well be that a lot of that was left off-screen (and I'm not just talking about romance-oriented affairs here. Minds out of the gutter!) as an invitation to the player to fill in their own blanks however they like with the bare framings presented while, at the same time, not forcing more than 5-20 second soundbites on those that would prefer to be playing Spreadsheet Wars: The Other Raidgame and get a neurotic twitch nearabouts the corners of their eyes if anything not optimally conducive to improving their gear is thrust upon them.I imagine that the devs have good cause to try to not alienate anybody no matter their playstyle (within reason) and I can well see how deep, winding and elaborate character interactions could exasperate some.However...that's still fairly well the tone they've set, in my regard of SWTOR. Heavy reliance on story, narrative and characterization as a primary draw is a stated selling point, though if you scratch the surfaces too much, you're likely to find that there's not much other than those surfaces to begin with.All in all, it looks to me like a classic case of trying to please everyone and offend no one resulting in everyone getting a rather hollow shell of whatever they might be here for.That's just my take on it, of course. Those hollow shells might gradually take on more than one thin dimension as the game matures, of course, but I'd realistically consider the timeframe of that becoming noticeable to probably be years, and done in tiny, tentatively tested increments so as to be sure that nobody is alienated somehow.I don't know if I'm being realistic or cynical in that expectation. I suppose I see no reason why those would be mutually exclusive either though, so, that said, there's that for that; my opinion. Just a typical day on the SWTOR forum.