Victory Is Preordained: Player Choice and Destiny in Star Wars: The Old Republic
SWTOR was first released in 2011 by Electronic Arts and Bioware. The game was developed primarily at Bioware’s studio in Austin, Texas, however, teams and individuals from other areas (such as Bioware’s studio in Edmonton, Canada) also contributed to development (SWTOR: Home, 2011). It uses the HeroEngine, and has only ever been released for Windows PCs. Even in 2019, it remains one of the highest-budget games ever created. A successor to Bioware’s wildly popular Knights of The Old Republic roleplaying game and Obsidian’s Knights of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, SWTOR’s target audience consists mostly of Star Wars fans who enjoyed these previous games. However, its playerbase also draws from “refugees” of other games of its class, such as World of Warcraft. It is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB.
As stated, SWTOR is a massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) stylistically similar to World of Warcraft. It features 3D art, a soundtrack that includes classic Star Wars music as well as original works by Mark Griskey, and multiple gameplay modes. There are two different types of PVP, “ground PVP” in which player characters fight each other, and Galactic Starfighter, in which player spaceships can fight each other. Though role playing remains popular, the other primary style of play is PVE. SWTOR offers PVE content for both groups (of 4, 8, 16, or 24) and individuals (SWTOR: Game Overview, 2011).
This analysis focuses specifically on the Knights of The Fallen Empire (KOTFE) storyline, which is one single-player, PVE story arc among the many offered by SWTOR. After its Shadow of Revan expansion, Bioware altered SWTOR’s trajectory towards story-based content, a change that resulted in KOTFE’s 2015 release as game update 4.0. KOTFE consists of sixteen subsections (“chapters”) that must be played in linear order and are accessible to both factions and all eight of the game’s player classes (Knights of The Fallen Empire, 2015).
The next few paragraphs will endeavor to provide a brief overview of the gameplay in SWTOR. Due to the game’s massive amount of content, the focus will remain mostly on analysis-relevant information, ie that pertaining to KOTFE. Please note that the rest of this analysis will contain heavy spoilers for Rise of the Emperor, Knights of The Fallen Empire, and all subsequent content (up to and including Jedi Under Siege).
Though SWTOR is an MMORPG, KOTFE is designed for a single player. Most of the expansion takes place in phases, areas of the game that generate unique and separate instances for each player who enters them. Though other players can enter into KOTFE phases alongside the owner, this is relatively difficult to do and is not a frequently selected playstyle, as non phase owners cannot do very much while in someone else’s KOTFE instance (SWTOR, 2015). Mechanics in KOTFE remain consistent with those of SWTOR as a whole; gameplay consists of two base actions, combat and conversations. In combat, players use abilities specific to their class that they’ve loaded onto taskbars in an attempt to kill each other or NPCs. In conversations, players listen to NPC dialogue (the game features a full voice cast) and then decide on a response from between two or three provided options. KOTFE also features some special, KOTOR-style conversations that allow for more options but do not include voiceovers for the player characters. The end goal of KOTFE is similar to that of most rpgs: defeat all the enemies between the player and the boss, and then defeat the boss. This model operates within each chapter of KOTFE as well as throughout the entire KOTFE arc; there is a final expansion boss at the end of the sixteenth chapter.
SWTOR is set in the Star Wars galaxy, about 300 years after the events of KOTOR I & II and 3,000 years before the events of the original Star Wars movie, now known as Episode IV: A New Hope (SWTOR: Game Setting, 2011). At the beginning of the KOTFE expansion, two factions are at war for control of the galaxy. The Galactic Republic, protected by the Jedi, is the “Old Republic” referenced in the game’s title. The Sith Empire are conquerors attempting to take over. However, the former leader of the Sith Empire, the Emperor, has gone rogue and is striving to devour all life in the galaxy. After the Emperor kills every living thing on the Imperial planet of Ziost, certain factions within the Republic and Sith Empire decide to momentarily put aside their differences, creating a joint task force to find and eliminate the Emperor once and for all. The final cutscene before the player is released into the KOTFE expansion features the player character flying to this expedition’s flagship, intending to join in the hunt for the Emperor (SWTOR, 2015).
A third faction, newcomers from Wild Space calling themselves the Eternal Empire (Zakuul), attack the expedition with overwhelming force and capture expedition leader Darth Marr, as well as the player character. The captives are taken to the Eternal Empire’s leader… and learn that he is the Emperor they have been hunting for, under a different name: Valkorion. Valkorion kills Darth Marr, but then is assassinated himself by either his son, Prince Arcann, or the player character (assisted by Arcann); this depends on player choice. Either way, Arcann accuses the player character of assassinating Valkorion and throws them into a carbonite prison while he takes the throne and conquers both the Republic and the Sith Empire. When the player is rescued from prison after five years, they must build an Alliance up from nothing until they are finally ready to challenge Arcann and the Eternal Empire at the end of chapter sixteen. But there’s another power at play here… after Valkorion died, he didn’t become one with the Force. Instead, he stowed away in the player character’s mind, and provides them with both guidance and temptation throughout their KOTFE journey (SWTOR, 2016).
The remainder of this paper will involve the analysis of KOTFE’s formal elements, most notably its narrative, dialogue, and the choices it offers to players, in an attempt to show that its creators are offering a metacommentary on the mechanism and implications of choice in games. In other words, by exploring themes of destiny in an environment where there is only one character who can make choices (the player), KOTFE attempts to examine how such choices (or lack thereof) can affect characters and the game world. This exploration occurs in conversations between characters, comments made to the player by certain characters, and indirect discussions of the relationship between fate and player choice.
KOTFE explores themes of fate and destiny in many ways, but perhaps the most direct is by simply having characters with different beliefs discuss these themes. The player is then welcome to weigh in on either side of this debate via conversation options, or to stay on the sidelines. Looking at the story through this lens, almost all of KOTFE’s characters can be divided into one of two groups: characters who believe in fate and characters who do not. One character from each of these categories is paired together at a few key moments in the story, allowing for a dialogue on fate to be initiated.
The first such moment comes in a swamp on the Eternal Empire’s throneworld of Zakuul. The player is stranded, but abruptly finds a ship… and not just any ship, but the only warship capable of singlehandedly challenging the Eternal Empire’s navy. It’s been lost in the swamp for centuries, but has resurfaced just when all seemed lost. In any type of story, this might feel a little too perfect to be believable, something that is not lost on two of the player’s companions. One of them, Koth Vortena, attributes this to fate, saying, “We get [the player rescued], find exactly the weapon we need… we’re going to win this thing, Lana. It’s destiny.” The other, Lana Beniko, replies, “It’s certainly no coincidence… but destiny? I think there’s something else going on here” (SWTOR, 2015). It will soon be revealed that Lana is a pragmatist who doesn’t believe in destiny. The player is given the option to weigh in briefly, but mostly, they’re left to reflect on the difference between Koth and Lana that has just been exposed.
The player’s first real chance to concretely engage with the theme of choice comes soon after, when they go out into the swamp with Koth in search of old ship parts that could be used to repair the Gravestone, the special warship that they’d just found. As they work, Koth makes a passing remark that allows the player to establish a stance on destiny for the first time: “It’s destiny. I ditch all of these parts before we crash, we find the Gravestone, and then what do we need to get it flying? Honestly, it’s plain as day” (SWTOR, 2015). To respond, the player can choose from options like, “[Yes,] things always end up going my way—there’s really no other explanation” or “[No,] what matters are the choices we make” (SWTOR, 2015). While either Koth or Lana will be pleased that the player agrees with them, that’s just about all this conversation offers in terms of impact on the story. Its real weight comes from the fact that upon careful examination in an extradiegetic context, there is a dual truth here. In games, stories do always end up going the player’s way. No one plays games to be a loser. But on the other hand, players’ choices really do matter in games, especially in ones with branching paths like KOTFE. So, no matter which option the player picks, they are revealing a truth about the very nature of narrative in games.
This might suggest that the game implies no right or wrong answer concerning destiny, and indeed, the issue lends itself better to deconstruction than to rhetorical arguments, at least in KOTFE. Still, the theme of questioning destiny develops as the story progresses, culminating in a moment when Lana admits that she’s “switched sides,” telling the player character, “I thought you were the only one to stop Arcann simply due to your capabilities, but now I see. This is destiny. Your destiny. It goes against everything I know to be true, but it’s there. It’s real” (SWTOR, 2015). Lana’s epiphany doesn’t seem to go far enough to settle the debate once and for all… but this pragmatic character’s canderous admission is more than enough to make most players stop and think critically once more about how destiny might play into their experience.
The player encounters themes of choice once again in Chapter VI of KOTFE, when they meet the character Heskal. Heskal is a Scion of Zakuul, or in other words, a fortune teller who strives to interpret destiny. His belief in destiny is probably the strongest of any character in the game… even his combat lines include the likes of “Choice is an illusion!” His stated reason for opposing Arcann, “because [Arcann] thinks himself beyond the reach of destiny,” provides further evidence (SWTOR, 2015). Heskal speaks directly to the player about destiny and choice, too. For example, he eventually tells the player, “[Arcann’s] destiny is to fall… but his final fate remains unclear. When he is at your mercy, what will you do?” (SWTOR, 2015). In KOTFE’s final chapter (XVI), Arcann is indeed put at the player’s mercy… twice. It isn’t much of a stretch to say that here, ten chapters earlier, Heskal is asking the player to predict a decision that they probably know deep down is coming. Calling this decision out so directly draws the player’s awareness to the fact that the ending of the story is almost a guarantee; once again, no one wants to play a game in which their character ends up permanently defeated, so Arcann’s downfall is basically a requirement for KOTFE. Drawing attention to this point in particular allows Heskal to convincingly argue for fate; when the situation is looked at like this, the fact that games incorporate a destiny mechanism of some sort is nigh undeniable.
However, like with Lana and Koth, a character with the opposite belief is provided for juxtaposition with Heskal. This time, it’s Senya Tirall, another Zakuulan. If the player expresses faith in destiny, such as with the assertion, “everything that I’ve done has brought me here. I’m supposed to face Arcann. To stop him,” Senya’s response is, “Careful with that. Destiny can cloud your judgement more than doubt ever could” (SWTOR, 2015). When the extradiegetic lens is brought out once more, it’s quickly revealed that Senya is wrong; everything that the player character has done literally has brought them to that conversation with Senya, and the entire purpose of KOTFE is to fight Arcann; the only way to get around such a fight is to stop playing the expansion halfway through. Still, in the moment, the fact that KOTFE allows Senya and Heskal to bounce off of each other carves out more space in the expansion’s dialogue for the exploration of themes of choice.
Additionally, the KOTFE storyline’s dialogue covertly explores the player’s ability to make choices… and how this ability sets them apart from the game’s NPCs. In one such instance, the player asks Valkorion, “I didn’t choose to come here. You brought me. Why?” Valkorion’s response is telling: “You control more than you think. I follow your lead” (SWTOR, 2015). In the story’s diegesis, this remark is puzzling. The game had just dumped the player in a completely foreign environment; the player never chose to visit the area or even to talk to Valkorion. Though Valkorion’s words will become more clear to the player later, they still offer deeper meaning when inspected extradiegetically instead. Though the player character has no way of knowing that they’re in a video game (SWTOR always respects the fourth wall), the player themself does know… and indeed, their status as a player allows their character to control far more than that character could ever realize. NPCs like Valkorion do indeed follow the player’s lead then, responding to their decisions with one of several pre-scripted responses. Valkorion’s self-awareness of this is almost uncanny, and will be a recurring theme in the story.
KOTFE also allows for the themes of destiny to bounce off of the concept of player choice specifically. Most of the conversations with Lana, Koth, and Senya deal with free will and destiny on a more global scale, even when they have undertones relating to game players specifically. But when KOTFE’s two most meta-aware characters, Heskal and Valkorion, are allowed to bounce off of each other, the discussion is drawn more directly than ever to the ways in which players get to alter destiny in games… and the dialogue becomes rife with hidden meanings. Heskal once says, “Every moment since you entered, even this one, was predestined. Everyone here played the role fate assigned them” (SWTOR, 2015). If the word “fate” were to be replaced with “the game developers,” this sentence would be undeniably true; video game characters are quite literally assigned roles to play, and each beat in the story is indeed predestined. The only question or variable is how the player’s choices interact with the destiny hardcoded into KOTFE by its developers.
It is Valkorion who ultimately offers an answer to this conundrum. He says that “Scions believe there is no greater power than destiny. They cannot believe you exist outside its influence. But we know better…” (SWTOR, 2015). In other words, Valkorion is pointing out that the player isn’t affected by the hardcoded destiny that controls the other characters’ words and actions. He as a character seems to realize that the player is free to make their own decisions. However, his use of the word “we” is loaded. This is neither the first nor the last time he’ll attempt to put himself and the player character in a different category altogether from the story’s other characters; even Arcann and his sister Vaylin aren’t at Valkorion’s level (at least according to Valkorion). The story is trying to convince the player that Valkorion is on the same level as the player… not the player character (who is far weaker than Valkorion at this point), but the player themself. Like the player, Valkorion is attempting to manipulate the expansion’s other characters to do what he wants them to. Though the player might have suspicions, they aren’t aware of Valkorion’s end goals… in the same way that Valkorion can’t be aware of the decisions the player will make. In ways like these, the two really are equals.
Player choice is further explored by additional dialogue from the Scions and Valkorion. When Heskal says, “Fate is a tale whispered to us by the Force. But the voices are silent about you,” he’s referring to the player’s existence outside of hardcoded destiny the same way Valkorion was earlier (SWTOR, 2015). However, unlike Valkorion, he doesn’t truly realize the implications of this. He seems to believe it’s a serious issue whereas Valkorion sees it as a sign of the player’s uniqueness and power (things he’s previously only ever seen in himself). Valkorion comments that “the Scions are driven by revenge, but they require fate’s compliance. We are above such negotiations. Destiny is merely the conduit for our will” (SWTOR, 2015). Once again, he’s putting himself on the same level as the player while also pointing out another truth about the mechanism by which game stories operate: the different destinies that are hardcoded into the game for its characters do indeed exist only to see that the player’s will is carried out, ie that their choices have consequences, as was promised in KOTFE’s promotional materials. When he says that the Scions require fate’s compliance to see Arcann killed for his crimes, he means that only the player has the power to kill Arcann. Indeed, no other character in the game besides the player’s ever has an opportunity to remove Arcann from the story. Valkorion makes a few other loaded comments of this flavor to similar rhetorical ends. For example, when Heskal questions Senya, Valkorion says, “[he] questions her commitment… because [he] cannot foresee it. Ask yourself why” (SWTOR, 2015). The rhetorical answer is “because Senya’s actions are tied to mine as the player, and I have multiple choices that game characters can’t discern.” A bit later, Valkorion tells the player to “stop wasting time. Reveal [Heskal’s] fate” (SWTOR, 2015). This is ironic considering that the reason Heskal and the player met was so that Heskal could reveal the player’s fate… but it makes perfect sense when the revelation that “the player has no fate, but other video game characters do” is taken into account.
In the summer leading up to its release, the following speech of Arcann’s appeared with other promotional materials on KOTFE’s website:
Unfortunately, the full version of this speech never made it into the expansion; instead, an abbreviated version is given near the beginning of Chapter VIII. However, the full version still nicely sums up the themes that the entire expansion discusses. KOTFE utilizes a combination of player choice and thematic elements concerning destiny, fate, and free will to offer a metacommentary on the mechanism and implications of choice in games. The conflict between free will and destiny runs deeply through this expansion, and is explored by dialogue between characters who disagree on these issues, such as Lana & Koth and Senya & Heskal. Encounters with characters possessing different levels of meta-awareness, such as Valkorion and Heskal, allow for parallels to be drawn between destiny and the hardcoding of games like SWTOR. Finally, hidden meanings are used to explore these parallels in depth, with Valkorion and Heskal pointing out those things that truly set the players of games apart as “masters of destiny” of sorts. At the end of the day though, the expansion never does truly make a definitive argument for or against destiny; if anything, it provides evidence for both sides. Whether this means the player is free to choose whether or not destiny itself exists in their story is a question for a different paper.
———
Game Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.swtor.com/info/overview
Game Setting. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.swtor.com/info/setting
Knights of the Fallen Empire. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.swtor.com/fallen-empire/home
Star Wars: The Old Republic (Version 4.1) [Computer software]. (2016, January 11).
Star Wars: The Old Republic- Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.swtor.com/
———
I wrote this piece in COMM 351: Game Studies & Design @ UW-Whitewater.
Comments
Post a Comment