Well that's one hope shattered.

It looks like Star Wars: The Old Republic will have you choosing sides when you create your character. I haven't been keeping up on details for TOR so I've been caught with wishful thinking that BioWare might let players reach their destiny through gameplay and story, but here you go: pick a class, pick a faction.

I'm not fond of the two-faction this-side-or-that system that's become the defacto norm for MMORPGs. Horde versus Alliance, Destruction versus Order (why couldn't Chaos be a third faction?), Freeps versus Creeps (okay that's mostly one faction), and now Republic versus Sith.

At the very least, I was thinking players might be able to switch sides, or have some sort of ambiguity, but that doesn't seem likely if your class choice also selects an allegiance.