[Editor's Note: Anthony "Kellmorn" Sproson is back in the guest seat today. You may have read and enjoyed Sproson's "Do You Have TORitus?". Today, the topic of discussion is the presumed maturity level in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Take it away, Anthony!]
Whoah, whoa! Cover your eyes and turn away, kids! Mommy and Daddy are playing a game...
I
TORWars Podcast #152: The Terrors of Nuturing the SWTOR Community
We’ll see. Even though Lucas may not have his hand in this thing, its still “his” universe. A painful fact which continues to hose us all.
I like JarJar and I like Gungans. I’m 34 and I do not consider myself immature.
Oh Kristen! We could have had something special…
(Just kidding of course. Bygones be bygones. 
)
I wasn’t actually calling anyone immature, i was stating that Jar Jar Binks is firmly a child friendly character, liking him doesn’t make you immature, it just means you like a character that is primarily for children – nothing is wrong in liking him, i was merely using him as an example of how Lucas is exploiting that particular audience. In other words, giving children someone to identify with – although as i said, when i was a kid – i just wanted Qui Gon like many others because Qui Gon > Jar jar
And as for using Jar Jar as ‘comic relief’, you don’t need a bombastic character to get comedy from a serious story – they didn’t have Jar Jar in The Empire Strike’s Back.
When i used the term ‘mature’ in the article, i meant that the game itself won’t be something like Jedi Academy, or Republic Hero’s. And also ‘mature’ because of the nature of the story lines, if you blow out innocent civilians out of an airlock for the Republic – you take responsibility for that action, especially when the game is intending to be immersive. I felt uncomfortable watching the video of that decision!
The term ‘mature’ when used on a game or piece of entertainment is different than when applied to a person. Mature on entertainment and goods generally means of an adult nature. Mature to a person is naturally without age, as young people can be more mature than adults and adults can be immature (because its fun sometimes).
A hallmark of immaturity is the inability to recognize one’s own immaturity.
How does liking Gungans make someone immature? The whole race helped re-take Naboo you know.. without them, Amidalah is just Queen over a still blockaded world..
While I think that TOR will be less kid friendly than say.. the Clone Wars cartoon.. I doubt it will be any less kid friendly than any of the movies.
I am 43, and I liked Jar Jar, he added Comic relief if you ask me.
as for the whole maturity thing, I gotta say, I have played MMO’s for the past 15 years, and other text based mmo’s for a lot longer.
And I can say without reservation, that one’s age does not define maturity. I have played with 16 year old’s with more maturity then some 40 year olds in my guild.
Just this week, we had a guildie Rage quit because someone kept rolling need on the bug mounts in AQ. I have been yelled at on vent for referring to a guildie as HIM, when his character in game is a she.
I think the ones of you that are defending the Gungans are missing the point. The author was referring specifically to Jar-Jar; not his species.
That being said, I must say, I do agree with his take on Jar-Jar. The guy was annoying as all get out. Ewoks, however, rule. Yes, they’re cute and cuddly, but that doesn’t immediately mean that they’re characters for children. Lots of the Ewoks got annihilated while fighting the Empire on Endor. The only reason they won was because of the help from the Rebels.
Anyhoo, I kinda felt like the author got away from an interesting topic in the article by blasting different characters. The fact that there will be romance in this game is exciting, indeed. It reminds me of KotOR, where, on my first time through I went dark side and turned Bastila along with me. The end cinematic was awesome! (I don’t want to spoil it, if you haven’t played it.)
I’m looking forward to many more moments like this in the 1600 hours of storyline BW has set up for the classes.
Well if you watch the ewoks, not only are they played by children (the majority atleast) – but they are also child like in their actions and mannerisms. For example, Leia is cuddling one at the end, and one is hugging han solo’s leg and falling asleep on him. Does that make them purely for children? Of course not, but their portrayal is one of which intends them to be viewed as cute cuddly child based beings. (Holy alliteration batman!) Well the legion on the moon of Endor was “one of my best units” from Palpatine, those guys don’t get owned by rocks
It’d be like Wrex getting beaten up by care-bears.
I return to the point and finish it, but naturally an article can’t be wholly serious throughout otherwise it’d be boring!
(Or won’t get published)
I generally agree with your view – the Gungan race and culture are actually pretty interesting. Jar Jar is just an ass clown – having an ass clown in a movie isn’t necessarily a bad thing. You can even have an ass clown in a ‘mature’ movie, book, etc. It just so happens that Jar Jar’s ass clownery is definitely aimed at kids. Again, nothing wrong there, as kids are an important audience too. The hard truth is there will only ever be so many Star Wars feature films, and it stings the incumbent crowd a little when we’ve got to share our big-screen real estate with different age groups and audiences. Personally, I would have preferred a character like Jar Jar be portrayed in something along the lines of the Clone Wars TV series. Conversely, I am sure there are several people a few years younger than me that may have very fond memories of his character and I’m sure he helped get the Star Wars hook in that audience. When I was a kid, I didn’t really get hooked on Star Wars until I saw Return of the Jedi (born in ’80, so I had some catching up to do anyway).
All that said, I think you hit on a very interesting point regarding the Ewoks. I’m not one of those that thinks the *idea* of the Empire forces being overwhelmed on Endor is necessarily that implausible. I do think it would very interesting to see that particular chapter played out in a little more visceral of a light. Perhaps just the right balance of a little blood and gore would have gone a long way towards making the whole feel of that battle a little more believable. Appreciating there were technological and ratings considerations at play, I think that’s a very interesting encounter/period I wouldn’t mind seeing painted in a slightly darker light.
Full disclosure: my brother, seven years my senior, quoted me as saying ‘I wanna be an Ewok’ in my sleep after seeing RotJ for the first time… Guess I can’t hate on Jar Jar too much!
I wanna get a fist full of dollar bills and head to the cantina and watch me some good ole pole dancing. Nar Shada should be interesting. They should make it a 21 and over planet.
lolololololool
gonna be so funny watching all the other people that do the same thing
I agree with you 100% yet again sir Sproson. You know that recent article “Star Wars’ 10 Biggest Missteps”? Yeah. Gungans. Ewoks. Child-friendly cutesy crap. -_- It’s about bleepin’ time a Star Wars game was made for people over the age of ten. (Let us not forget KOTOR 1 & 2 though. Thanks BioWare, again!)
It’s fine to have child based elements, after all, Star Wars is for all generations. The main point of the article is that sometimes Star Wars needs be for a certain audience, rather than for everyone. Because if you want children to be able to watch it, it has to be of a certain caliber and standard – and meeting child friendly standards means seriously tying your hands behind your back in terms of getting that certificate for ‘viewable by children’.
I understand that the majority has to be child based products, but as you said, the rare occurrence of KOTOR and the like resonate endlessly. And, they also provide something for the ever aging Star Wars audience to move onto, children don’t stay children forever!
Yeah, I’m fine with bringing in new generations of Star Wars fans of course. But at this point I think the kiddies have had more than enough pandered to, or geared towards them. As both a writer and an RPer, I see the great potential the Star Wars universe inherently possesses. And yet, most of the time it seems like the only audience Lucas and his company are interested in is the children. Anyway, I’m glad that SWTOR is looking more and more like it is meant for older fans like you and me.
Funny people seem to forget, Star Wars New Hope and Empire Strikes Back were very adult like and violent. I am glad Bioware sticks with their guns and keeps game mature like KOTORs.
No need for unrealistic lame species like Ewoks or Gungans. They weren’t made for story just marketing for kids.
Oh man, this totally reminds me of one of my fondest memories from SWG:
A friend and I once got bored on SWG, and we were looking for something funny to do,so we decided to take a trip to Endor…..bad idea.
Long story short, we were members of a Rebel guild, and the officers and leader got so angry at the 2 of us for slaughtering 3 whole villages of ewoks (and then asking the guild tailor to make me a set of “ewok hide boots” from a piece of crafting material I found as a random drop on one of them) that we almost got thrown out of the guild!
I will never forget how hard I laughed that night, and YES, after being chewed out for “actions unbecoming a member of the rebel alliance”, I DID get my boots!
Dude, that is an awesome story! That made my day. xD
lol at the Rosh Penin comment. My character enjoyed beating him down in Jedi Academy
As for Jar Jar, he is too much at times in the movies. I’ve tolerated his presence in them and in the Clone Wars cartoons.
WOW. You people are so cynical. xD If you can’t handle 1 comedic character like Jar Jar then you need some therapy. Jar Jar is HILARIOUS. In no way is he supposed to be a SERIOUS character. Everyone in my family, adults and kids combine, love Jar Jar. In no way is he directed towards a kid audience, he’s generally funny all round.
Jar Jar Binks is directed to a child audience just as much as That 70′s Show is directed towards a child audience. Stupid. Hilarious. Humor.
And as for Qui-Gon, I’ve never been a fan…I mean his very first line is “I don’t sense anything.” Obi-Wan is so much more bad ass.