To explore this possibility, I started by looking at appearances of aliens in TOR footage and evaluating if they were likely to be player-characters (PCs) or non-player-characters (NPCs). There wasn't much to evaluate because BioWare has been coy about aliens in TOR, even to the point where they had to assure fans that they were indeed going to be playable in the game:
Sean Dahlberg, Community Manager: We have announced that players will have more than human-only options; we just haven't disclosed which species [exactly] will be open for player characters yet.
{SWTOR.com/community: "STAR WARS: The Old Republic Fan Friday"}
Since this assurance more than six months ago, we now have three confirmed alien species as playable in TOR: Twi'lek, Chiss, and Rattataki. (Note: Not "Rattata")
Since then, we've also had some signs that might hint at faction-exclusive species:
Daniel Erickson, Lead Writer: The Chiss are actually the only aliens we've shown that are fully allied with the Empire, the Empire tends to actually be very anti-alien.
{GameTrailers: "E3 2010: Multiplayer Dynamics Interview"}
So what evidence do we have for playable aliens? I've compiled the following sample from the screenshots, concept art, and videos that appear on the TOR website and in various interviews:
- Concept art of Neimoidians, Ithorians, Nautolans, Rakata, Gamorreans, Kitonaks, and Bith, none of whom but Nautolans seem very likely as playable for abnormal body type, lack of popularity, or voice over restrictions
- Various screenshots of Gormak and Voss, the natives of the planet Voss that the player is forced to interact with or fight against: obvious NPCs
- A screenshot of what looks like a Human Jedi PC and his Mon Calamari companion squaring off against a Gran NPC
- A few alien companion characters, such as Qyzen Fess the Trandoshan, Kim Vaal the Dashade, Xalek the Kaleesh, Vette the Twi'lek, and screenshots on the "companions" website of an unidentified Wookiee and an unidentified Devaronian
- Some NPCs such as Eleena Daru, who seems to be not only an NPC, but a companion to another NPC, Darth Malgus, and Jory the Nikto who appears in the Bounty Hunter intro mission and is doomed if he shares the fate of BioWare's other "Jory"
- Way back in Video Documentary 1—apparently before they decided to hold off on species announcements for a year and a half, from 2008/12/12 to 2010/05/13 to be exact—what is obviously a Kel Dor Bounty Hunter PC (note his armor and the use of the flamethrower), as well as a Chagrian Sith and a Togruta Jedi who are ambiguously PCs or NPCs
- Screenshots of a Rattataki Bounty Hunter as the first officially announced race
- Live gameplay demos as a Twi'lek Smuggler and as a Chiss Imperial Agent at E3 2010
- In the E3 Multiplayer Demo, footage of another Twi'lek Smuggler PC and an NPC Mon Calamari Trooper named Narlock
- A floating holographic head of a Nautolan in the Player Ships video, which may be the same floating holographic Nautolan head that has been mentioned as a quest-giver for the Imperial Agent class
From the above, it seems like the PC race/class pairings are: Twi'leks—Smugglers, Chiss—Imperial Agents, Kel Dor & Rattataki—Bounty Hunters, Chagrian—Sith (ambiguous which), Togruta—Jedi (ambiguous which), and maybe Mon Calamari—Troopers. The rest are companions or general NPCs without confirmation that they will be playable.
Considering that I scoured extensively for information (though perhaps not all-inclusively), it's obvious that we don't have much information about playable aliens. Otherwise I would have been able to make more connections or outright disprove the hypothesis. BioWare has played the alien issue so close to the chest that the connections I did make could easily be a result of a lack of information and not of actual in-game restrictions. That said, there are some reasons why BioWare might want to go the route of one alien species paired exclusively with one class.
Species implies a particular background. Considering the narrow scope of the class narratives, the background and starting point for a character would benefit from having as few variables as possible. While it's possible to create a species-neutral starting point for each class, there are some cases that are problematic. The Chiss species, for example, comes from the Unknown Regions and would therefore have loyalty to the Dromund Kaas-founded Sith Empire, making them inappropriate for Republic classes. The Chiss are also popular because of their source-character, Thrawn, whose archetype tends toward that of an "officer" such as the Imperial Agent and not toward that of a "mystic" such as the Sith Warrior or Sith Inquisitor (although Thrawn did pose as the Bounty Hunter Jodo Kast for a time). If restricting alien species by faction prevents going against their default "alignment", restricting them by class goes a step further to prevent casting against their default "archetype". After all, in the films only Humans appear everywhere and in all walks of life. Aliens are always the exception, and then they usually fit one specific archetype. If you doubt this, consider how few aliens are ever main characters in Star Wars. The story of Star Wars has always been a story about Humans in a Human-controlled galaxy that just happens to include some aliens. Humans are neutral, but an alien species implies a default view of the galaxy, if not a default personality and profession. One example would be how all Bothans are shifty politicians and spies. This archetype bleeds into even the characters who have other professions, like the soldiers and pilots. It's important because it defines their "Bothan-ness", but it's also baggage that the writers don't need when writing up a class narrative. By tying species archetype to class archetype, they can assign each alien species to an appropriate class narrative. This philosophy increases the number of possible aliens that BioWare can make playable because it allows them to assign species with particularly strong archetypes—such as Chiss, Bothans, or Ithorians—to be included in TOR without having to be shoe-horned into every class. For example, it'd be hard to explain away a Croke Trooper or Smuggler, but the Sith Inquisitor is close enough in archetype to the character of Rokur Gepta where it would work for that particular class.
Additionally, class-exclusive aliens might benefit the game by enticing players toward classes that might not have otherwise been their first choice. In a game where many will gravitate toward the guys and gals swinging the lightsabers, it might help even out the population if the only way to play as (for example) the original Mandalorian species—the Taung—is to play as a Bounty Hunter. The tension a player might feel deciding between their favorite class and their favorite species wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, especially for a game that encourages multiple characters per player. It would not matter that the overall lore allows for a Taung Sith Warrior or even a Taung Trooper because the limitation would only apply to one specific character represented by your class. A character who—if they follow the example of Jaden Korr, another "choose-your-own" protagonist in Star Wars—will wind up as a Human in canon anyway. NPC characters would not have these restrictions because they could be customized to support their more specific archetype. Limiting "The Jedi Consular" to a few specific races would be no more problematic from a lore perspective than limiting Revan and the Jedi Exile to Human.
Unfortunately, these types of limitations would be directly against player customization. Player customization is very important in an MMO because it allows you to express your identity in a social game populated by a vast number of players. While reasonable restrictions on customization are generally accepted—I don't believe anyone is expecting to play as a Hutt Jedi Consular—
—and I think most people understand that Wookiee PCs would be problematic for voice over—but taking species restrictions to the extreme of one class per alien species might make them seem rather arbitrary for the more generic aliens. Would players really accept restricting Zabrak to the Sith Inquisitor because it's the "Darth Maul" class, even though the films also included Eeth Koth and Agen Kolar as Jedi Masters? Would fans of Nautolans be satisfied with being restricted to the Jedi Consular and not Jedi Knight simply because that's what Kit Fisto was? I think it would be terrible even if I understand why they'd do it.
Some other possible restrictions they might put down based on notable characters in the films and the expanded universe:
- Greedo: Rodians can only be Bounty Hunters
- Cad Bane: Duros can only be Bounty Hunters
- Xizor: Falleen can only be Imperial Agents
- Barriss Offee: Mirialans can only be Jedi Consulars, OR Luminara Unduli: Mirialans can only be Jedi Knights
- Plo Koon: Kel Dor can only be Jedi Knights (Note: This goes against the Bounty Hunter video, see how these restrictions can be viewed as arbitrary?)
- Other members of the Jedi High Council could be viewed as the source for other class restrictions (e.g., Yoda, Ki-Adi-Mundi, Saesee Tiin, Yarael Poof) leading to a number of Jedi-specific races
- Zam Wesell: Clawdites can only be Imperial Agents
- Ackbar: Mon Calamari can only be Troopers
- Vilmarh Grahrk: Devaronians can only be Smugglers
- Ludo Kressh: True-blooded Sith can only be Sith Inquisitors
- etc.
I find the above restrictions entirely unsatisfying. I can see why some of them might be made, but from a customization perspective I would be frustrated by the inability to create a Cerean Sith Warrior or a Twi'lek Bounty Hunter. It would be especially frustrating to see a companion character with a race and class combination that I couldn't reproduce with my own character. One possible answer to this would be for BioWare to compromise between customization and the benefits of restriction by limiting species by class, but not so far as to the extreme of one-to-one pairings. That it would instead be reserved for special cases or that each alien species would have a selection of classes to choose from. Also, that Humans are confirmed as universally available means that it's at least feasible that some of the more "generic" species archetypes (e.g., Twi'lek, Rodian, Zabrak) could also be universally available as well, or at least only restricted by faction.
Thankfully, I was able to dig up some counter-evidence supporting more lax species restrictions:
- Hylo Visz, a Smuggler from the Timelines, and Fortris Gall, a Jedi Knight from the webcomic, are both Mirialan.
- Darth Malgus, the titular Sith Warrior, is generally assumed to be a dark side corrupted Human but could easily be a Rattataki instead.
- Both the Sith Dark Council and the Jedi Council appear to have some aliens as members.
- Exal Kressh seems to be a Sith Warrior compared to Teneb Kel as a Sith Inquisitor, going against any arguments that true-blood Sith should be restricted to the Inquisitor.
- Grandmaster Zym and Master Gnost-Dural are both Kel Dor Jedi despite the footage of the Kel Dor Bounty Hunter.
- Eison Gynt is a Nautolan Jedi yet we've seen more than one Nautolan NPC loyal to the Empire, such as the floating hologram head guy and the NPC in Brandon's hands-on demo
I worry that these examples can be dismissed as mere NPCs who don't have the same restrictions as PCs, but I don't think that's entirely accurate. I think that the characters we've had revealed to us, especially in the timelines, cinematic trailers, and webcomics, are being used as hints to show us what is playable in the game. For example, this page from Act 2 of Threat of Peace clearly foreshadowed the announcement of Chiss Imperial Agents—note the glowing red eyes of the assassin—but nobody caught it at the time, instead focusing on the backstab move that was also later confirmed as an Imperial Agent ability. While I hope that BioWare does not restrict alien species by class, or at least not all of them and not 1-to-1, I do think it's an interesting possibility. Most likely there will be some species restricted to particular classes, but I am hopeful that these will be a limited selection and that open player customization will win the day for the majority of species options.
What are your thoughts on restricting species archetypes to particular classes, even partially? Let me know!
- Discussion: "Don't Be Surprised If Aliens Are Class-Specific"
