Playing Games = Acting

Sometimes I think about allowing certain ignorant comments to be published on my SWTOR videos just so I could counter them with logic, but then I remember that it wouldn't matter, the people probably wouldn't understand since they don't already. There's been a few who seem to take offense to my Vette videos where I shock her or am rude to her. Frankly, I don't see the problem because a) it's a video game and not depicting of something I do in real life and b) it's called acting.

Yes, video games are like acting except you are not getting paid (unless you're a game developer/tester in which case I'm jealous). You are putting yourself in the role of that character you see on the screen except, with certain games, you have more freedom as to how you want to portray the character (within the limits of the choices the developers input, of course). So the times I shocked Vette, I was portraying my Sith as, well, a Sith. He liked her but, being Sith, he had to keep that appearance of domination as to not show any weakness or another Sith might kill him (and possibly do much worse to Vette). True, another Sith can't kill mine in the game, but I was acting. I based my Warrior on Malgus (personality) and Maul (looks) so that influenced some of my choices.

When I play my Smuggler, I play her how I feel a Smuggler would be. She's flirty but also a bad-ass, dirty fighter. She likes credits (who doesn't) and will sometimes do morally bad things to get them. She also has a heart, a soft spot for non-humans seeing as she's a Twi'lek and grew up a slave until she was able to escape. So the quest on Taris that deals with how the Republic 'resettled' non-humans underground 300 years ago, she sided with the non-Humans. My Smuggler also doesn't really care about the Republic nor the Empire.

When I play my Imperial Agent, I play him a bit like the Smuggler though he has a love for the Empire to an extent (he doesn't like the way they treat non-Human/Purebloods). He also does not care if you are male or female, if you are in the way of his mission, he will take you down by any means necessary.

I will admit that my personal views do come into play with some of my choices, I mean, how can they not? It's near impossible to completely separate yourself out but that doesn't mean I would ever condone stuff like this in real life. It's acting. Do you think actors who have portrayed murderers or Hitler in movies/tv condone the actions of their real life counter-parts? I seriously doubt it. They do it for the money, the fame, to entertain viewers, and to have fun pretending to be something they are not.

When I used to play Fable II, my character would sleep with just about anyone and she would kill her husbands; something that is completely opposite of the way I feel in real life. Again, it's acting. Games allow us to be what we are not and, as long as we who play these games know the difference between fantasy and reality, there's nothing wrong with that.

It's funny what offends people when it comes to games, some don't like killing period but to others it's okay depending on what/who is being killed. Some folks also read too much between the lines when there actually isn't anything there other than what your mind made up.

So to those of you out there who think people are 'messed up' because of what they do in video games, grow up and get over yourself. It's no different than acting, something all of us have done at some point in our lives. Surely you remember playing as a kid, pretending to be something you're not. Of course, some people can go too far, but they are actually not all as common as some may think.