Sure there is.

I learned that in speech class...LOL!

- Alan

It's called keeping your audience engaged in the topic at hand. Suspense if you will. Take Bioware for example lol..."Hey folks! TOR is gonna come out soon. But we'll tell you when as we get to it. Now you watch and listen to our every move until we tell you. Commence squeeming in your chair and enjoy the fetal position in the corner of your choice for the next 3 years. L-O freakin L."

Your videos get better and better, Alan. /props

As for vanity pets, what's great about them is that is exactly what they are: they don't affect anything, they just stay close to the character and look good. I don't see any reason not to have them in the game (other than the feature not yet moving off the great wall of crazy). If you want them you can have them. If you don't, you can ignore them. And it's another way for characters to exert their personalities on the MMO world.

The thing with vanity/non-combat pets is that I'm starting to adopt the idea that if a game is going to include something, it needs to fit with the game and have a place in it. For TOR, the pets fit more of a social/trophy sort of role if they were to be implemented. That means that they generally chill out with you in town or on your ship. I can tell you that Talon Karrde didn't take his pets with him every where he went.

What I would love is that have stuff sort of fill in the spaces of you ship. Maybe you pick up a gaffi (sp?) stick from a Tusken or you keep the scalps/pelts of some animal you killed. Stuff like that. Another interesting thing would be class specific vanity items. A Sith would have ancient tomes and artifacts with Dark Side power in them or a trooper would have an old set of armor and something like a favorite gun.

What I'm saying is that as you go along your class story you pick up items that will tell other players where you have been, what you've done, etc. Think the little trinkets around Zaeed and Kasumi's rooms in Mass Effect 2. Those are definitely the sort of vanity items I would like to see in The Old Republic.

Lots of good thoughts! I can't decide now what I think about vanity pets because you were all so persuasive...LOL!

- Alan

Vanity items, microtransactions, class balance, and a few other things that are very hotly debated.

Zach, Evan and I recorded the most recent episode of MER last night. In it, we talked about the topic of non-combat pets and used several of the comments in this thread to fuel the conversation.

Be looking for other opportunities like that and stay active in the forums! You never know when your name might be mentioned on Mos Eisley Radio!

- Alan

I just want to say I wish I could have Neville Longbottom as a non combat pet, as long as he was a complete BAMF of one.

I wouldn't mind seeing them in TOR, as long as it wasn't in a micro transaction. I like them, I collect them (so obviously I don't mind them).

im sorry i dont support non combat (vanity) pets but I'm not against them either. i dont feel they are just for micro transactions WOW had them for years before they started that and as for immersion breaking give me a break. really?? ive never felt immersed in a game maybe because of the stopping to spend points, going to train every other level, from all the trolls , the half naked goof balls dancing for tips, and pulling speeders/horses/whatever else out of my crack to get from here to there faster there will be things we will see in this game we didn't see in the books or movies me if i was a Jedi i would carry a blaster also and maybe a few grenades. OK so im not a very good Jedi but neither was allot of them i can see a sith throwing a flashbang into a room to get an edge and than just lie about it later "nope i just kicked down the door and slaughtered them all." but hey thats just my thoughts and feel free to disagree i dont mind at all

I am neutral on theme of non-combat pets. I do anticipate them to be a part of the game, so I have mentally prepared myself for that. Personally, I do not make it a point to collect all of the vanity pets I can and will likely be quick to sell one or give it to someone that prides themselves in the collection of pets.