If Han Solo played Star Wars: The Old Republic, there's no question he'd play the Smuggler class. Smugglers, by their very nature, aren't always good guys, sometimes allying with nefarious characters such as Jabba the Hutt. As MMORPG.com Community Manager Mike Bitton says, "Han Solo wasn't always a hero". In today's column devoted to SWTOR, Mike talks about the darker side of the smuggler. Check out Mike's thoughts and then add yours in the comments.

BioWare has drummed up the Smuggler storyline as really capturing the Han Solo fantasy and being fairly comical in nature as a result, which was evident in the trailer. It also helped that the video was rife with Harrison Ford references. I say Harrison Ford and not Han Solo because there were actually references to the Indiana Jones films as well as the Star Wars films. The amusing situations the Smuggler can get himself into (and out of) really went a long way towards illustrating how well BioWare seems to have captured the Han Solo Smuggler fantasy. But it also begs the question: What about the darker side of Smugglers?

Read more of Mike Bitton's Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Darker Side of Smuggling.

Too bad the smuggler can't smuggle anything.

How cool would it be to be the only class in the game that can smuggle or convert Republic weapon into Imperial weaponry. But hey, that would mean the Smuggler would have to be a neutral class, something that won't happen because of the locked linear story.

It's a faction based game, so I think they'd have to have a third, neutral-ish faction. 'Underworld' or 'Criminal' sounds about right. Bounty Hunters weren't members of the Empire, they operated their own system and had their own rules. I'm sure the Republic could have hired Bounty Hunters if they had enough money. Smugglers could have been smuggling stuff for agents of the empire who didn't want to go through normal channels (for whatever reason). I could see all kinds of corruption in the Empire...at least for anyone who wasn't hanging around with Sith mind readers.

Then you have the whole Sith to Jedi and Jedi to Sith conversion. Presumably the Jedi in the game never saw a Sith prior to their return. Ditto for the Sith...they never saw a Jedi. When the two forces started interacting, there would be Sith who decided to become Jedi, and Jedi who would decide to become Sith.

That might be a bit much though.

Unfortunatly, interview after interview has suggested thatwe are going to get the Han Solo smuggling experience, because that is, fater all, what we players really want.  This happened with SWG and it will happen here in TOR, they know what we really want.  If you even think of playing a bounty hunter, of course you want to be like Boba Fett!  If you play a smuggler of course you want to be Han Solo, now here's your Wookiee!  Now I'm sure that will be fun, but the problem with this story based MMO we are getting is that ultimately we will be playing the characters that they have written.  We are going to be actors in a script with a bit of illusion of choice in dialouge choices.  Hopefully we have some tools and RP support for being able to play outside the stories and quests that they give us, because that's the only way that i think we willbe able to explore these other paths.

On a side note... Han shooting first.  I never once, EVER thought after having watched Star Wars a bunch of times that Han was "evil" for shooting first.  Greedo wasn't minding his own buisness and on his way to volunteer at the local homeless shelter, he had a gun pointed in Han's face, and dropped enough hints that he was about to shoot Han ("That's the idea", and "I've been looking forward to this for a long time").  It was pretty onvious to me as a child that Greedo was up to no good here.  Han shooting forst was smart, not evil.

How about that scene in Return of the Jedi where the Imperial Officer tells them to freeze in the bunker and Han throws a charge at him, knocking him over the railing and to his death?  That guy sure didn't "shoot first".  he told him to "freeze".  Better change that one too!

Yea, in one of the early interviews with the Dev's, the guy said "we've been watching all the SW movies and will make sure the iconic items make it into TOR" (basic drift as it's been a while since I read it).

So yes; smuggler = Han and bounty hunter = Fett plus what ever other items they pulled.  I'm thinking Obi-Wan at the start of the one movie when he goes to talk to the Trade Union at Naboo may equal Jedi Counseler.

It's things like this that make a lot of people say TOR will become SWG2.  There's going to be some familar stuff in it that's for sure.

Want    to    make    tight pants reference but alas i will refrain.

This article is exactly why there should be a 3rd faction of "neutral" classes with Bounty Hunters, Smugglers, and whatever else in it.  It just makes more sense.

I'm vocally on the fence regarding this game, leaning more towards the Wait 6 Months And See side of things. The one thing that could pull me in, however, is a fleshed out true Smuggler class. In the vids that I've seen you are either a healbot/dps hybrid or a full dps type (which does appeal to me, I want it noted).

However...is there any real smuggling in this game? Oh I am sure there are courier quests and you have to fight some bad guys on the way, but that isn't smuggling. That isn't deceiving Imperial Officers with false panels as they storm your hull looking for The Thing Of Sad (which, btw, is Rebecca Black). There are no congames or snowjobs or bribery or the pulling of wool over the eyes, is there?

Am I asking too much? Probably. But it is things like this that makes me think the current technology and skill out there just cannot provide a true Star Wars experience just yet. I'm not asking for a sandbox necessarily (I never played SWG in any incarnation), but when I look at the videos and teasers I simply do not get the Star Wars feeling. Sure, it looks like Star Wars, and, hey, there's the Star Wars music...but there is an ephemeral something that prevents it from bridging a gap that I personally feel would hook me.

I hope this is a great game. I hope it does well and people love playing it for years. But it is going to take something more for me to come on board, and I'll be looking to see if that unverifiable something makes its way into the Smuggler class.

A third underworld faction would have really been cool. Also I really wish that you could end up switching alliances from the culmination of the light and darkside choices, that you end up making as you play the game. That would really make your choice's matter and would be true to rp'ing.  I also conceed that this could cause alot of faction balance issue's down the road.

Here's hoping SWTOR is as fun as it looks.

This "live your fantasy" stuff really gets on my nerves. It's like they're selling interactive romance novels or something (knowing Bioware's "romantic" storylines, they kind of are). What's worse, they're dictating our fantasies to us. The fact is, a lot of Star Wars fans will have very different fantasies than the ones offered in the game. Oh well. I guess I wish they were conceptualizing the storylines as "significant and deep" instead of "living your fantasies."

By the way, I'm not really getting the "Han the villain" idea. And don't give me an elaborate explanation of it. Lucas isn't that deep. 

This article feels a bit as if it was written from a sandbox point of view kind of, where you should have the freedom to do and play your char basically however you wish, but since the game still is going to be a themepark the storylines are what they are, as the factions too.

I dont see each and every bountyhunter should work for the Empire only but I accept it since I know what this game is and what it's aiming to offer me, one thing being stereotypical SW class themes, Han putting smuggler on Republic and Boba putting bountyhunter on Empire and so on.

As long as it's better then the Smuggler experience in SWG.... when I left that horrible game (when Holocron grind was revealed way before CU/NGE) Smuggler was still completely worthless and broken.

I know I'm going to RP my Smuggler as close to the center line as possible. A good mix of good and bad, with my choices dependant upon the context of the individual conversations.

And if Bioware makes it so to min/max you have to choose a path, Light or Dark, I'll be one of the loudest and most prevelant voices of discontent on their forums :)

Originally posted by BadSpock

As long as it's better then the Smuggler experience in SWG.... when I left that horrible game (when Holocron grind was revealed way before CU/NGE) Smuggler was still completely worthless and broken.

I know I'm going to RP my Smuggler as close to the center line as possible. A good mix of good and bad, with my choices dependant upon the context of the individual conversations.

And if Bioware makes it so to min/max you have to choose a path, Light or Dark, I'll be one of the loudest and most prevelant voices of discontent on their forums :)

 

Actually, I think they've said there is a reward for those who manage to stay in the middle. 

Can I have my Dark Jedi with force lightning please?

As with every other classes, I intend to let the story happen to my character and I'll see every time how I think he would react.. I don't intend on going more in a side than another, I'll end up with the alignment I end up..

Now if this stupid game could get a release date...

Originally posted by precious328

Too bad the smuggler can't smuggle anything.

 You mean other than their group? You may want to check again, Smuggler does have a smuggle ability.

 

 

Sounds like what everyone wants is to have ALL the classes start as neutral. Then as you progress through the story you can move to either faction. I could see this working as long as the beginning PvP is set to a level high enough to get the the factional choice first. This would have added a nice feeling to the story part of the game. We can hope that something like this will be added later on.

I am still of the opinion that gunslinger would have been a better name for class. In SWG at least the smuggler did some hacking and spice crafting.

Still did not smuggle much.

Originally posted by megabuu

Sounds like what everyone wants is to have ALL the classes start as neutral. Then as you progress through the story you can move to either faction. I could see this working as long as the beginning PvP is set to a level high enough to get the the factional choice first. This would have added a nice feeling to the story part of the game. We can hope that something like this will be added later on.

Yea this is indeed a good concept. BW should have just mirror all the classes as with 3 different factions.

Seriously I do not want to play a smuggler that looks like a cowboy, instead I would rather look like a Riddick.

Originally posted by WhySoShort

Originally posted by bjlf8ds9a

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I say we let this punk stay. He's showing us the darker side of smuggling.

 

OMG What an awesome game idea! Gold sellers - once reported by players (confirmed by GMs) are automatically flagged as killable pvp targets. Bounty hunters can get bounties and smugglers can  kill and loot em. 

Originally I was thinking gold sellers should lose their account and their toon become NPCs that prattle on about sales, but at least PKers can have some fun with these RL gaming smugglers.