Join The Dark Side? ...Okay.

I love Star Wars.  It was the first real geeky thing I ever latched onto, and boy did I latch on like a mynock to a power coupling.

I read the books, devoured the comics, sunk way too much money into the collectible card game, and just overall obsessed about it the only way a young fanboy could.

When it came to Star Wars and video games, I managed to avoid most of the early flops until Bioware introduced Knights of the Old Republic and KOTOR 2.  Both were impressively robust yet accessible RPGs that really captured the epic feel of Star Wars, while still bringing unique additions to the overall universe such as the amnesiac Revan and the murderously-hilarious HK-47.

Now, Bioware's incredibly-ambitious MMO "Star Wars:  The Old Republic"  is going to get me to do something I've rarely done before:  play the bad guy.

"It is useless to resist..."

My first characters in any RPG are basically the same:  heroic do-gooders that will sacrifice anything to see justice done.  But when given the chance to play the ultimate sci-fi do-gooders, the Jedi Knights that I idolized as a young geek, I find myself reluctant to choose the path of peace and am instead drawn to a... darker path.

Because let's admit it, the original trilogy wasn't about Luke Skywalker or a scrappy band of rebels:  it was about Darth Vader.  Even Empire Strikes Back was all about the Lord of the Sith:  he's absent for almost half the movie, but steals the entire trilogy with just one line.

The Sith have been set as the polar opposite to the Jedi in every piece of Star Wars fiction, but they are often a contradictory evil.  In the movies, they were subversive loners who brought down the "corrupt" Republic from within; in the novels the Sith seemed like nigh-unstoppable evils rising up time and again to threaten the Jedi Order; in the video games they were a long-lost civilization that fell entirely under the sway of the dark side, whose technology led to pretenders committing great evils in their name.

In short, they are an enigma, a shadow, a tantalizing mystery that begs definition.  And it is that desire to solve the mystery that has led so many Jedi astray throughout the history of Star Wars.

Bioware sets up the Sith as conquerors, appearing from the edges of the galaxy suddenly and ferociously enough to overwhelm Republic forces and rock them back onto their heels.  But at the height of their victory, when they seemed poised to strike at the heart of the Republic and the Jedi... the Sith stopped, forcing the Republic to sign a lopsided peace treaty and then leaving them in the smoldering rubble, wondering just what the Sith really wanted.

Bioware has teased bits and pieces of the Sith's story that will be revealed in the game, hinting that the Emperor has deeper and darker plans and that players will have the opportunity to make decisions that will affect how loyal their character is to the Sith Empire.  You can be loyal to the Emperor's vision, your masters above you, or you can fight the influence of the dark side, possibly even becoming a light-sided Sith (or at least a gray one).

That tale of darkness, shadows, deception and possible redemption sounds much more intriguing than the Jedi's story, where a new generation of Force-wielders return to the Order's roots to help them become the stabilizing force for good and order that they once were.

That story has been told, many times.  This time I want to tell a new story, because even though I may not like how it ends, it'll at least be mine.