Everything Shall be Made Clear...

Okay, so everyone was confused about that whole "Riava" thing.
And yes, Clarissa, it is a computer game.
You would not find results for Riava on any search, however, because she is our personalized character.
So. What computer game is this?
um...
Star Wars.
...
So, I am not a huge Star Wars fan.
Why am I playing a Star Wars computer game and making a deal about it on my blog?
First of all, the game is awesome and funny and entertaining. But how was I even EXPOSED to it?
Let's skip back to Thanksgiving weekend.
Did we get this game around thanksgiving?
No. We got it Wednesday. It came out Tuesday. So how could it possibly be connected to Thanksgiving?
Because that is when we first played it.
???
That's right.
We were part of the BETA TESTING. Ooooh.
Dad told me that he had been selected to participate in the beta. Which I though would be extremely cool for any computer game, even if it wasn't my type of game.
But I did like the game so everything was fine.
Then they shut the whole thing down at midnight on monday. :(
And then Dad bought it for Chanukah and everything was fine, even though we lost Riava and all her accomplishments.
(For whatever reason, we got to keep Dad's imperial agent "Jezrek". Wahoo. Unfair.)
Anyways, we made a new Riava nearly identical to the old one and I took pictures of her and posted them and waited for you guys to get confused.
So, now it's time for:
ABOUT THE GAME!!!!
What is this Star Wars game all about?
Well, it's called Star Wars; the Old Republic (or SWTOP). It's based off of an older star wars game, Knights of the Old Republic, which occurred about 300 years before this one on a Star Wars timeline. Both games are about 1000 years before the movies, or something like that.


The set up: so this game is actually like a server. One of those games like World of War Craft or something like that. The graphics are really advanced. So are the scenes. Most of the time you're walking around on a planet (there are different servers you can use with different story lines) and you can see the other characters walking around too. With their names. There's a little chat box you can open in the corner, but we keep it closed unless thanking someone for saving or helping us.


The characters: There are some main characters who persist throughout the plot. Evil guys, like Darth Malgus, who work for the Sith Empire. Or good guys, who work for the republic and support the Jedi. There are different species. Like those things with scaly skin and little tails coming out of their heads? That's a horrible description. I'll try to find a picture. Anyways. Teachers are a bunch of different species. So yeah. There are a bunch of extras, who don't say or do anything except meditate and add to the environment or whatever. The voice acting is spectacular.


Us: As Jedi, we get to design our characters. There are about 5 species. And then you could be a Jedi Knight, a Jedi Consular, and two other thingies. We chose to be female. Then you get to design yourself. Different body shapes, tons of different face shapes, hair styles, skin tones, eyes, that stuff. You start out on level one, than progress with experience. Old Riava reached level 12. We're on level 9 right now. Again, great voice acting. For good decisions you get Light Side points, bad decisions get Dark Side points. We don't have any Dark Side. Yet. So you can work for the empire or the republic. Jezrek is evil, and can thus be impudent and betray people and get dark points.


Conversation: When conversing, you normally have three options. For example, upon meeting a giant iguana ally named Qyzen, are choices were basically:
1) Nice to meet you.
2) It is a great honor.
3) AAAAGH YOU'RE A FREAKY GIANT LIZARD!
There is normally one quite insensitive (and yet hilarious) response. But those get us Dark Points and we're to scared to choose them.


Battle: Okay, so I know some of you are kind of fazed by the "Star Wars Computer lingo" or whatever. I'm sorry. You are under no obligation to read all of it, although some of it is interesting. But if you have skipped over it, here are some powers we have as Jedi Consular that I've illustrated. I find them pretty cool. What's your favorite?
[Note: Picture mechanism temporarily out of order. I'll just describe them.]
-We can do slashes with out light saber (which we only just made)
-We can pelt the enemy with small rocks
-We can lift huge hunks of metal and rock or whatever from the ground and hurl it
-We can lift our enemies into the air
-We can stun them
-We can daze them
-Best of all, we can jump and create this huge force wave to wipe them out
Yay.

Plot: I'm not really going to tell you much about the plot. We have a main objective and storyline, but we can also accept other quests from people along the way to get credits. Credits help us advance a level. We get more training with every level.

Chat box: There's a little toggle chat box in the corner that we keep minimized, but every time someone helps us or we help them, we send a little "thanks" or whatever. Ty. You know.

And finally, here's a little trailer thing to give you a vague idea of the story line. It's slightly violent. No, it is violent. But it's also kind of cool. The awesome girl is Sitia. She's awesome.

Okay, hope all that stuff didn't go right over your head.
Bye!
~Julia