Welcome to Officially Speaking, a regular column focused on the most hotly debated topics ever to grace the official Star Wars: The Old Republic forums. Do you have something to add? Feel like it gets lost in the shuffle over there? Join in the extended discussion right here on Ask A Jedi.
There’s a debate that has been raging on the official forums for months now about available species in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Never mind the debate on what races should be accessible to players in the game, that’s a whole other article. This controversey focuses on the whether should cyborgs should be considered a race.
It all started some months ago when PC Gamer UK published a “matrix” of available classes and species. One of the entires was “cyborg” and of course that spun TOR fans into a frenzy. Not long after, Daniel Erickson popped in on the thread to offer some advice that not everything you read is final, nor necessarily even accurate:
The species/class combo list you’re referencing is not accurate. If it does appear in the magazine, that’s unfortunate.
My guess is that an enthusiastic member of the press wrote down everything he saw in the character creation screen which, as we’ve stated often, is nowhere near final. Occasionally we’ll have species in odd classes or in all classes because of a bug or testing.
Cyborgs have of course been a part of Star Wars for a long time. Some of the more famous? General Grievous, Luke Skywalker, Darth Malak, and of course Darth Vader. It seems only appropriate that players are given the option for their character to be a cyborg in TOR. But many players are wondering if they deserve to take up a precious slot as a full blown species of their own.
One forum poster notes:
“They could have made becoming a cyborg, or not, the finale of one of the chapters. Even the first one. Look at what Malgus and Anakin went through before becoming a cyborg. What an incredible “story” opportunity to portray and experience.”
Another poster who was actually able to play the game at a convention states:
“A lot of people disagreed with me that it was actually one of the playable race/species options. But now I am sure that it is. I don’t know which class has it. I don’t know why it has not been revealed yet. But I would be extremely, extremely surprised if it is not a choice.”
So, if cyborg actually takes its place in the character creation process, what are your thoughts on the matter? I personally don’t think cyborgs should get their own slot as a species. I mean, theoretically, couldn’t any species become a cyborg? Why couldn’t a Twi’lek have his arm replaced with a cybernetic version?
The best solution might be the excellent suggestion from SirRobin above that becoming a cyborg shouldn’t just be a quick choice made in the character creation screen, but a pivotal moment in your character’s story.
Imagine fighting a rival and clutching a holo-recording to your chest as he backs you up to a ledge overlooking a conveyor belt which assists in creating droids. The rival demands you give him the recording and you are given three options:
- Never! [Fight]
- You win this one [Give him the recording]
- You can take it from my cold dead hands [Become a cyborg]
If you choose the third option, you leap over onto the assembly line and just before you reach the machines that will go all Jack-the-ripper on your character, it fades to black and you are presented with a special cyborg customization screen, you then awake afterwards in a medical lab as a cyborg. While we can’t expect BioWare to take the time to do something like this, I do think it’d be a much more effective way of presenting this “species” to players, who could then play a cyborg of any species.
So how do you guys think the cyborg question should be handled? Leave your comments below and I’ll be sure to join in on the discussion with you all. In the words of one famous cyborg: “I’ll be back.”
Editor’s Note: Please remember to not post any NDA-breaking information in the comments section, it will be deleted.
