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The following is a huge nerdfest; you have been warned.

Interest and excitement surrounding Bioware’s upcoming MMO offering, Star Wars: The Old Republic is really ramping up. The game isn’t scheduled to go into limited public beta until September, yet guilds are already forming, forums are alive with class and race choices, and even character names are being chosen. I, myself, am already in a guild. I joined last week. The Facebook group set up for this guild had 51 members when I joined. We now have 77, with more on the way. It’s really looking like Bioware will be giving Blizzard a run for their money. That’s not really what I want to talk about, though; it’s just what has gotten me thinking.

The first major choice a player has to make is which faction to align themselves with. Because guilds represent groups of players working together to help each other through the game and participate in group content, this is also the first choice (or nearly the first) that a guild has to make: are we a Galactic Republic guild, or a Sith Empire guild. The choice isn’t really one of have and have not; both factions are balanced with character classes that are mirrors of each other. The Jedi Knight is the mirror of the Sith Warrior, the Jedi Consular is the mirror or Sith Inquisitor, the Trooper to the Imperial Agent, the Smuggler to the Bounty Hunter. It, in my opinion is almost purely an aesthetic choice. Of course, fans of the movies will tell you the Republic is good, and the Empire is evil. Well, folks, that’s just politics.

It has long been my belief that the Jedi Order’s militant, narrow minded view of the Force is what ‘blinds’ them to the Dark Side. The Sith, throughout the Galactic History laid out in the franchise (books, movies, games, and comic books) manage to sneak attack the Republic because no one in the Jedi Order is looking at the Dark Side; it’s forbidden. A Sith Lord does not limit his power to a narrow view of what is available in the Force. A Jedi does. The Jedi says, “The Dark Side has blinded us.” I say, they have blinded themselves. If you are not looking, how will you see. This is less politics and more religion.

In my view how a wielder of the Force uses their power determines any moral standing they might have, just as the use of any skill or ability, specifically the willingness to do harm to others, determines whether they are good or evil. Religion, or a particular moral definition of good and evil, has long been used to further political agendas in the real world, and I think it is no different in the Galactic Empire. So, really, as a far as a group mentality is concerned, I think religion can be eliminated as a defining factor of Empire or Republic. Once again, we’re back to simple politics.

Every example we’ve been given of the Republic has shown a Galactic Senate, mired in procedure and hampered by the desires of thousands of races and planets with an inability to reach compromise. In one case, this Senate has been so infective as to leave the Republic ripe for a takeover. We, as free thinking citizens of a republic ourselves, have been conditioned to think that any sort of government involving the rulership of one person, without a ‘voice for the people’ is bad, nay, evil! However, apart from a severe dislike of the Republic and their Jedi Order, we’ve seen few, if any, examples of the Imperial government being any worse than the Republic. There is a thriving slave trade and an incredibly powerful organized crime syndicate (The Hutts), not to mention a corrupted trade commission. But all of that existed in the Republic, before the Sith made it an Empire. Are the Sith evil simply because they toss lightning around and kill people who piss them off? Seems quite thin to me, given the Republic (apart from the lightning tossing) has never seemed to hesitate to shed blood when it served their ends. So, really … one choice is as good as the next, provided you’re not an actual Force user, because under one regime or the other, one set of Force users will be eradicated. Yes, Anakin killed Younglings … but the Sith used to number in the millions, and now there are only ever two … some Jedi Knight somewhere did some serious, and no doubt bloody, house cleaning.

So, what’s left, really? What differentiates the choice? Why choose Galactic Republic over Sith Empire? Aesthetics, plain and simple. For my money, the Sith just look way cooler. Sadly, the guild I’m in looks to be leaning towards Galactic Republic. That’s ok, though. I’ll work with it. I still believe the Republic has been blind the the Empire’s machinations, because the Jedi refuse to even look at the Dark Side, let alone research it or talk about it. I also think that, in general, monarchies are bad. There are a few exceptions in the real world: Monaco, Jordan. By and large, though, it ends badly. So, my Jedi Consular will likely have Dark Side leanings, refusing to be ‘blind’ to the Dark Side, but aligned with the Republic because while a stagnated Senate gets little done, at least there is a conversation about what should be done for the good of all.

I told you it was gonna be nerdy.