Syp over at Bio Break had something to say about the possibility of playable Droids in Star Wars: The Old Republic, hoping against hope that everyone’s favorite robots would, ironcally, be actually playable by humans.
There are a couple of arguments against droids being an actual race, but perhaps the largest one would be the actual role of droids in the Star Wars Universe. Sadly, they’re mostly tools – tools that can talk and have a sort of programmed personality, but tools nonetheless. They’re usually seen in service to, well, “meatbags” as HK-47 will tell you, and even in the movies themselves they are relegated more to a supporting, sometimes comedic role (see: C3PO). So on one respect you might not expect them to shine brightly enough to be a race all on their own. Heck, you might not say that they are even a “race”, per se, but more of an entity.
But Droids, in their function, can serve plenty of roles in the Star Wars universe, and as a playable race can introduce a variety of elements in terms of Bioware’s vaunted Story focus. For example, a particular droid might start out serving one master over the course of their story quests, only to change to another. Droids themselves are, even in the role they played in the main films, iconic by their look and behavior. Who out there doesn’t know who R2-D2 is? For a droid that apparently speaks only in beeps and whistles, that’s something.
Bioware’s vast timeline of hundreds of years before the main films also leaves a lot of story to be filled in specifically about droids. It perhaps might not be too much of a stretch to imagine a slice of history in which droids rebelled, or became independent to the point of having a centralized presence on a particular planet. Even though he was a cyborg, General Greivous from Episode II of the movies shows that it isn’t too much of a stretch to have droids with some level of thought to do such things.
Overcoming the barrier in selecting classes, however, might only be done by restricting droids to particular, specific careers (as much as you all might want to see a Droid Bounty Hunter or Jedi/Sith, probably not happening). But here we might just see somewhat of a role that Droids can properly fill, and that is the unknown role of “healer” or “support”. Droids by their very depiction are suited to “utility” and can possibly be tweaked into a class that provides much needed buffs, engineer-like devices, or even medical attention in lieu of the magic of the Force. Being only a droid might seem like a turn-off to many potential players, but to others, it is a chance to play a fairly unique role with a unique, distinct look that won’t span the other classes.
Time will tell if Droids come anywhere near a role that isn’t NPC or Companion in TOR. But like Syp, I’m hopeful that they won’t be just another R2-D2 or C3PO.
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