Uh... I could have sworn Evan said he was going to talk about the table top RPG in one episode... Yet he has not! Stop hogging the spot light, CCG! *shakes fist at*

Just because everyone else did, I figure I might as well toss my opinion on the gender issue as well. I personally have played both. When I first started playing games online when I was like 15, I did play a lot more female characters because I was like "Yeah! Dudes will be nicer to me!" and I do still somewhat believe this.

However, now a days, I play characters of both genders based on a variety of things. Not including any of the MMOs that have gender locked classes, I play a gender based on pretty much appearances. In almost stereotypical fantasy RPG fashion, 4/5ths of my 'fighter' characters are male. (Male Draenei Warrior, Male Orc Shaman, Male Troll Hunter) On the flip side, most of my casters are women (Female Night Elf Druid (Resto Spec), Female Human mage). The reason is because I think the male avatars look very cool in their armors, but silly in robes. It is the exact opposite for female avatars, who I personally feel look awesome in robes, but kind of silly in armor... which now that I think about it, might sound kind of misogynistic. Which I really, REALLY am not trying to be.

In TOR, gender will play an even bigger role than any other MMO because it will matter in a RPG aspect. How you play a Male Imperial Agent will differ greatly from a Female Imperial Agent. Even if you play a suave sexy Agent, they would still play out differently. Or so I feel.

I don't think it's weird to play the opposite gender in a video game at all. Since ToR is going to be heavily story driven, gender only adds variety to the game. I play mostly males in my RPG's because I can identify with my own gender moreso than a woman but I'm not afraid to roll a chick if it strikes me in the mood. I plan on rolling a female bounty hunter and inquisitor myself when the game launches.

WWE is a huge supporter of US Army, Navy, Airforce, Marine. Free tickets to active duty and children. They always come to Deployment tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. It make us feel good to have something entertaining when you there for 15 months. I met Curt Angle when I was in Iraq in 2008. So depending on what part of the country you live in the US it is popular. I just got back into it in 2010, it better entertainment then all the crappy reality shows they now have all over US television.
To everyone on the forum remember the fallen servicemen this Monday 30 May 2011. To my Army unit still in Afghanistan, Come home safe guys, Your husband,wives and friends miss you!

I already posted a long response on the comment section about this episode. It was a really good episode.
but want to elaborate on my thought on female/male characters.
Playing a female character has never been big deal to me because I don't see my character as full extension of myself. She is a symbolism of what I want to project on the game. I like the underdog archetype in PVP having my female character lay the smackdown on the male character. One reason why I hate losing to gnomes in PVP.
It also the sad truth that I am a quasi Alpha Male. Most sports I would rather watch women then men except for American Football & Basketball. Women in uniform whether it be Paramilitary or Sports are Hot in my eyes. Since I going play this character for a long time why not make her something I want to see, Instead of 2 years of the Lord of Rings clone of male dwarf or elf on my screen. Or SWTOR case 2 years of Staring at Darth Maul, Obi Wan, Mace Windu clone. Just my thoughts anyway, most guys and girls in my old guilds use joke around on which ex-girlfriend is my avatar based on

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/26/chin ... profits-f/ This is where your gold comes from when you buy it.

My fiancée and I are both gamers, and both of her playthroughs of Dragon Age 2 her character has been a male. She's not the only one of my female friends who has done that either. I know several women who have played the Warden, the Champion, Shepard and Revan as males almost exclusively. And several males who have done the opposite.

The only thing different about MMOs is the grouping factor, but I don't see that big a problem with it either. You're already dealing with a lot of other things outside of the actual gameplay that are breaking immersion, is someone's voice being a different gender than their character that much of a problem? What about when it turns out that the guy playing the Imperial Agent isn't actually British? I would find that just as disconcerting, personally.

Also, my trooper alt will definitely be female, cause who doesn't want to be voiced by Jennifer Hale. Though I imagine Shepard as a name will be taken by the time I go to make that character.

Also, to quote Tycho from Penny Arcade: "I'm perfectly satisfied with my relentless space lesbian." (Link)

This was a very cool podcast, news was great you guys keep it up and MMO Loser is a keeper.

First off, I love the podcast. MER is always a good listen and a great way to keep up with some ToR news and other genral Star Wars info. You guys do miss some things, like how the class vids are supposed to showcase major pwnage of 1 class over all others, but at the same time this does not mean the other classes suck at all. Its all just for show and in no way relates to what that class can actually do.

Now I've never posted here (MER forums) before and wouldn't have if it wern't for your MMO Loser section. Paying IRL cash for gold or leveling SUPPORTS accout hacking, game phishing scams, keyloging, in-game spamers and botting. And thats not even mentioning the in-game market manimulations.

Its really hard to belive that people still do not understand this. I would think this is common knowledge. Even Jar-Jar would not pay for gold. So yes Zach, you're an MMO Loser, and if you were to do it again knowing these kinds of things you would be much worse.

First off Welcome to the forums and glad to have you with us!!!!

I completely agree with buying gold because I feel like it wreck the economy and encourages economic inflation. I still don't think however that there is anything wrong with power leveling because its up to the individual and I personally do not see how it encourages hacking like gold buying does. I mean like the example used on the podcast, I know people who have been paid to level up a character from someone in WoW. I don't think that those action were unfair or wrong in any way. If anything its a tell tell sign that leveling isn't fun in the game and players are wanting to avoid it at all costs.

One thing a lot of people have commented on about power leveling is the fact that they can't understand why a person would want to reach the end so quickly because its about the journey. I do agree its about the journey but where does each persons journey start? For me back in my intense WoW days it was all about raiding. It was an absolute blast getting to play in 40, 25 and 10 man groups 3 to 4 nights a week. Working together to progress through flashpoints was unlike any other experience in the game. There were often times I wished I could have had a max level priest or druid on my hands because we had way too many paladin healers. I really didn't want to take the time to have leveled a priest up from 1-80 again because it would take time out of raiding. I ended up not leveling a priest and just stuck it out with my pally. My point for telling you is for me it would have been more about having a priest at the max level to raid with and less about the journey to get to the max level. So my journey started at the "endgame".

I guess what I am trying to say is I don't think everything is as simple as saying this is bad because it encourages account hacking. Power leveling does not in my opinion. Yes gold farming can because there is money to be made from stealing from others, which is one of the reasons I think buying gold is bad. Now I am not going to pay to have anyone level up my characters in TOR because I actually want to play each storyline. Finally an MMO where there is truly a different experience with each class and not just talking about an extra class quest or two.

Heres my 2 bits, its like trying to control drugs, people are gonna get them, its a fact of life. people are gonna do what they are gonna do. so you can either pull a Holland and make it legal in a highly controlled and taxed way, or waste billions fighting a "war" on drugs, the developers should take control of the Digital game cash for real money market, kinda like eve online does. they sell game time at a premium that you can then sell for in game cash from other players CCP gets the cash and the player gets his "gold" infusion.

I have been on both side of this isle, I bought eve isk from a website, my account was never hacked, my personal information was never stolen. However I was hacked 3 times in WOW having never purchased gold and while annoying, I ended up richer after the fact thanks to alot of stuff getting "restored" that was never really mine to begin with. Playing the blame game get us nowhere, devs should just take control by offering a way that they can still provide balance and control over the game while but making it so people can have a "legit" way to do what they would be doing under the table anyway.