RPG's by nature are pretty much linear. I'm not talking about your Everquest type RPG, but the more traditional Lunar and Grandia style. You had a goal. You pretty much had to follow step by step until you reached said goal. You were always the hero, and you never had a real choice as to how you wanted to be. Even Everquest was in a lot of ways set in stone based on what character you picked. Knights of the Old Republic changes that mindset by giving you the ability to shape your character. First, you can pretty much create your character from scratch. You pick a male or female, and have three basic classes; Scout, Scoundrel, or Soldier. Each one has various skills and techniques already. Choose what they look like, their names, and give them an extra skill or two depending. From that moment on, you have a lot of control over what kind of person you end up being. You can choose to embrace life, and the ways of the light. Or, you can be tempted by the dark side, and become another agent of evil. Your actions in the game determine that. Part of the gameplay system in KOTOR is interaction with NPC characters. In your conversations with many of them you can choose your responses, molding the conversation a certain way. You can also become aggressive and even violent with some of them, resulting in provoked (by you) fights. You can lie to people, or insult them. All these things will give you "Dark Side Points", which will help to turn you to evil.