Other Stuff
Been playing some more on-and-off in my spare time. Got my paragon up to 20th (maximum) level even though my biggest goal was getting him to where he could get from the expansion continent he started on to the other continents so he could adventure with people from the base (Prophecies) campaign. It seems this takes some time. Something about Nightfall is more enjoyable to me, though I'm having trouble pinning it down. The level design seems a bit more friendly (I'm not running into dead ends left and right), but I doubt that accounts for all of it.
And because I'd have to go through another few areas to get back to where the guild left off doing missions, I stuck with my warrior for group play last night. I'm not quite clear on why we took another player along on our first run through Borlis Pass. It proved disadvantageous when she was idle and the healer NPC who was attached to her stayed back while the rest of us were trying to make progress (and dying repeatedly in some cases). On our second run through, though, we made better time due to knowing where we were going and having the healer with us. Much better there. Still, it was the level 11-ish characters taking the hardest beatings while at level 16 my warrior wasn't in too much danger most of the time (nor earning XP most of the time).
I find I've changed my expectations of Guild Wars, and it's changed my outlook somewhat. PvE, the game isn't so much an MMORPG as a "regular," action-heavy CRPG that you can play with other people if you choose. Of course, the PvP aspect is all about playing against others, but I still haven't found that to really be enjoyable yet.
At some prompting, and watching of movies on TV, I'm trying to think Star Warsy stuff again. I hope to get some writing done, but I have to figure out a direction for the two main characters I have "active."
A couple weeks ago, during roleplaying offline, we ended up discussing/debating the nature of Palpatine's change in appearance during Episode 3. I seem to be the only one who was aware of the newer controversy (reflected lightning damage versus true appearance revealed). Most just assumed the old "dark side physically corrupts" line that was laid forth. Even upon further research today, I found nothing conclusive. I almost wish Lucas would render a verdict on some things like this. Almost. I'm rather afraid he'll condradict three novels and two sourcebooks worth of information with every sentence he speaks. ;)
I was gifted with Bloodlines, and read that recently. Watching Jacen Solo turn to the dark side is akin to watching a train wreck in that fascinating/disgusting way. The justifications at every turn are a little annoying, really. It's augmented by seeing him look back and watch Anakin's fall, all the while saying "Oh, but I'm doing things for better reasons than he is." Erg. Also having Ben Skywalker involved in secret police forces and paramilitary actions at age thirteen is somewhat disturbing to me.
One thing I find myself considering a lot when pondering Star Wars is the Force and it's light/dark sides. I tend to feel the Jedi in the movies are talking out of hidebound rhetoric more often than not, but that's the most official source of information we have. And I don't fully believe Vergere's arguments or the Potentium doctrine either. In a lot of ways, it boils down to "good" and "evil" which are thorny subjects to define themselves, and are usually based on perspective. It's almost headache-inducing stuff at times.
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