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    The Old Republic (TOR) does many things right when it comes to structuring the MMORPG experience, that being said, character creation is an area sadly neglected as choice is limited and inconsequential other than for strictly aesthetic purposes.  They are as follows: Chiss, Cyborg, Human, Miraluka, Mirialan, Rattataki, Sith Pure Blood, Twi’lek, Zabrak.

I bet you’re thinking, “Wow, that is lot of choices Arb.  What could you possibly be talking about?”.  Well as mentioned, the choices are largely ‘just for looks’ as all species share the same attributes.  The lithe Twi’lek is just as dexterous as the plodding Cyborg and has the same amount of endurance as the battle hardened Sith Pure blood.

At the time of the close of the beta, each character class was really nothing more than a paper doll to hang your belongings on. This is not out of the ordinary for MMO’s as you do need to have a reason to adventure; getting all the shiny baubles to put on your character is important after all.  A little more differentiation would have been nice though during the character creation process.

Bioware did give this area a slight nod as they gave each race a ‘social racial ability‘.  However, these abilities are inconsequential to actually game play and could actually have a negative effect in the hands of the stupid.  For instance the human racial ability is called rally – you press it and everyone around you breaks into cheers and jumps up and down.  The serious role players are not happy as someone can make your character do things, albeit harmless things, with no input.  The ‘serious’ role players have been quite vocal already on the testing forums about these racial abilities.   My question is if you are going to make racial abilities superficial, why bother with them in the first place?

Rather than have ephemeral differences between classes, why not give actual bonus that matter to the base stats during character creation?  It would make your choices matter more and enhance your connection with your paper doll.   As TOR seems to have followed WOW in so many areas why not in this aspect in character creation with having meaningful racial bonuses?

Having a unique dance for being a Twi’lek is nice and all, but when the blaster bolts start whizzing about, I’d prefer to be a little more nimble because its hard to bust a svelte dance move while taking a dirt-nap.