Runs with scissors..and doesn’t play well with others.  Ever see that on your report card when you were a kid?  I know I did.  Well if that describes you and your play style, the Star Wars Social Points system is going to try to change your mind.

Yeah, you have your companion, and you’re thinking “Elite mob, psshaw.  I don’t need no stinking group, I can mow down all these mobs myself!” But the creators behind SW:TOR want to encourage you to group up with someone, make new friends even.  To do that, they’ve created a reward system via Social Points.  Now, I’ve been playing SWTOR about two weeks, and every time I’ve played, I’ve wondered, WTF are these social points, and why do I care about them?  How do they work?  How do I get MOAR?

Here’s a quick run-down of what I found out.

When you are in a group, and there is dialogue, whether it’s quest pick up, quest turn in, whether it’s in a flashpoint or just running around, you will have your usual three response options.  A random roll occurs to see which person gets to supply the answer, which can be kinda lame, but you may have noticed that the amount of points you earn varies.  There is a “crit” factor that comes into play if you’ve not won a roll that helps to increase your odds of winning future rolls. Once you’ve won a roll, your roll goes back to the base random roll.

You know in the bottom left of your screen, when you are in a dialogue cut scene, you see your faces and those numbers next to it?  That’s your roll.

If your character wins the roll AND speaks, you will earn 2 points per person in the conversation – everyone else will get half that.  So the more people in the group, the greater amount of social points you can earn; 2/4, 3/6 or 4/8.

Social points get to be spent like currency, around the world there are “social vendors”, usually selling clothing options unique to their world (slave bikini!), although supposedly there may be some “surprises” (non-combat pets).

Flashpoints are good places to get more social points, supposedly Esseles and Black Talon provide the most.

Also, your dark and light side points are awarded based solely upon your choice, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose the roll.