Once More Into the Breach

At the suggestion of commenters on this blog, I decided to go ahead and try out an Imperial Agent.  I figured since I could heal, I should be reasonably entertained, versus straight dps, as long as I could find enough quests to permit me to level without feeling internally ill.

Aside from the quests, I had one big concern:  would I identify with the character?  For some people, the characters they play are little more than paper dolls with which they act out a story, but I tend to have to find a connection with my characters, or the whole exercise seems kind of pointless.  (Like watching most TV shows . . . I would have no desire to meet most of these chracters in real life, so why would I want to invite them into my living room for hours on end?)  They become an extension of me, so to speak.

You see, I would probably never have started playing SWTOR at all if I hadn't fallen in love with my Jedi Consular in beta.  But now the poor girl is bored to tears, most of the time.

If I love my Consular so much, am sure some may wonder why I ever created anything else.  Well, I created my Smuggler so I could have something to play when my husband wasn't playing, but she and I never truly connected (I'm not a roguish person), and the attempt to make her a dps proved to be the final disastrous straw.

I created my Trooper because I figured I would perhaps enjoy playing another healer, as the dps option hadn't worked.  But hearing her gruff voice, I knew she simply wasn't me (had to remove my headphones), and running the same quests for the third time became quickly tedious.  (And I already knew the class story line, as I had leveled with my Trooper husband.)

(For the record, I have never had a desire to create a Jedi Knight.  Sorry, folks, I hate melee play; you can't see a thing for spell effects and multiple mobs jumbled up together.  It's too hard to target individuals and make sense of the chaos.  Besides, they can't heal, I find dps boring, and I'm a lousy tank.)

I created my Sith Inquisitor in hopes that perhaps playing in the same area as old friends would help to revitalize the game, but although I managed to establish some kind of connection with her, as she is something close to a Consular, I found we were having a hard time remaining somewhat true to our consciences.  I pity her.  I really do.  The poor girl is going to spend a lifetime living in fear, while the powers she is trying to use do their best to suck the life out of her.  (Although she is Light side, her power still stems from the Dark, or it wouldn't be purple.  I wonder if fear is considered one of those emotions which will trigger use of the Dark side . . .)

I decided I was willing to give the Imperial Agent a shot, as I do have pre-paid time, but the success of the venture would partly hinge on establishing some kind of rapport with her.  The character would have to be someone with whom I would be willing to spend a good deal of time, after all, unlike those TV show characters.

/crack knuckles

Yes, you've seen that hairstyle and color before . . .

This time, after examining the options, I chose Human.  I did not change anything about the default character which appeared except the body type, hairstyle and hair color, and, yes, I made her blonde, like me.  (Hey, if I'm trying to identify with her, I'd better give her as many advantages as possible, right?  I wish I were body type 1, but those banana muffins I just made would help to prevent that, even if my natural genetics and bearing five children hadn't done so already . . .)

Choosing a name prompted much thought.  Finally, with a chuckle, I resurrected a name I'd used for a WoW alt, one most people would definitely not think of for an Empire character:  Hikarinoko, Child of Light.

Why didn't someone tell me she would be a spy???  (I suppose it should have been obvious by the term "agent", right?  But an "agent" can do many kinds of things . . . Generally, when talking about people, it's simply a representative.)

I can see some people out there scratching their heads . . . Is this good?  Is this bad?  What's up with this exclamation?

You see . . . /looks both ways . . . my real life job is all about security.  When the "Keeper" tells her operational security is key, I know exactly what he's talking about, because I am the one who briefs everyone in the company about this topic.

I think it might be safe to say that people in this kind of business, while we are supposed to guard against espionage, have a certain fascination with it.  After all, as the saying goes, "Know thine enemy", and in all the study we have to do to know how to defend against such measures, we obviously have to learn something about those measures.  And in our heart of hearts, we wonder how successful we would be as intelligence collectors, ourselves.  (*ahem* My badge number at work is 007 . . . because I was the one making badges at the time and could choose that number for myself when it became available . . .)

Identify with this character?  So far, we have instant rapport!

The folks I'm dealing with on Hutta are far nicer than the folks my Inquisitor had to deal with at her beginning (no surprise there, hm?) . . . and I'm pleasantly surprised how many times she can finish her quests by persuasion, rather than force.  (Face it, a spy who runs around killing people a lot is a spy who will probably be pursued much more diligently by authorities and be less effective in her work.)

Bottom line, in the starter quests, I'm having fun and feeling decently comfortable with this character.  The real issue will be what will happen when she has to face all those quests I declined with my Inquisitor, as well.