First off, playing a Droid is going to be problematic. Droids are property. For all their wits and skills all it takes is one disgruntled owner to sell or scrap them and their life of adventure is over. Worse yet if their memories are reset with a ‘standard wipe’.

So how does one play a Droid in an MMO?  Going Rogue seems to be the only option, and that raises all sorts of interesting issues. Rogue droids are often hunted down and destroyed. But Droid characters are iconic to the Old Republic series of games.  HK-47, GO-TO among others. So the odds are that droids will either be playable or a common companion character.

Whatever the Devs do this poster would love to have a Droid alt to go romping around in. How about you?

Certainly seems to be a lot of darkness and doom, does there not?  We’ll look at this a little harder later on.  For now, feel free to speculate amongst yourselves. Heh.

A Mandalorian Aboard a Basilisk War Droid by Franz Vohwinkel from the SW: KOTOR Campaign Guide

So, this is purely speculative on my part, but I do have some supporting evidence, thin as it may be.

We’re all sitting aorund wondering what classes are going to be available in the game once it comes out.  The only thing we really know is that there is going to be a Bounty Hunter and it is going to be Sith side.  Great.

But, let me ask you this:  How cool would it be if the soldier class on Sith side were Mandalorian?  Okay, okay, before you flame me for being a fool, let me defend my speculation.

As we all know, from KOTOR, and KOTOR II, Canderous Ordo, one of our ‘friends’ in the games, is a Mandalore, so there is some precedent.    He’s heavy Dark Side weighted and is quite happy if we go around randomly blasting people and things.

There is ‘historical’ canon support for the idea, too.  Consider this bit from Wookiepedia:

Around the time of the Treaty of Coruscant, a Mandalorian army emerged allied with the Sith. The Mandalorian fleet blockaded at least one major Republic trade route, hindering Republic Shipping.

I mean, it’s right there all set up and pretty like, just waiting to happen.  A Mandalorian army allied with the Sith.   Do we need much more than that?  And spend the time to read the rest of the Wookiepedia entry as well, paying special attention to the history of Mandalorians centrering around 4,000 BBY up to The New Sith Wars.  I think it all fits nicely together and is certainly potentially very likely.  I’m certain we’ll see them in the game, but the real question is, I suppose, will they be NPCs or available as either class or perhaps even a Soldier Prestige class (if the Devs see fit to make prestige classes possible, which is an entirely different discussion).

Just how awesome would it be to come blasting down to the surface of Tython wearing your armor and riding a Basilisk War Droid?  I’ll tell you how awesome: Totally!