In SWTOR, Will The Force Influence You?

We've all seen the video demonstrations from Star Wars The Old Republic where the developers have talked about Light side and Dark side options in the SWTOR. When you set up a character, remember that you don't choose Light or Dark side at the same time that you choose the class, faction, race and look. You choose to act Light or Dark as you make decisions. A character is not simply either Light or Dark.

So in SWTOR will you choose the Light or Dark side for the sole purpose of achieving certain levels in Light or Dark that then open up your access to certain weapons and equipment (according to the developers)? Or will your decision be based on morals and the type of character you want to play? Would you, for example, take out a camp of children in order to get Dark reputation that might earn you an uber cloak?!

The SWTOR developers have also said that if you build up enough Dark Alignment your character can actually change appearance if you choose to enable that option.

From what they've shown so far in the videos, my concern is that your decisions are highlighted as either light or dark. So if you're having  conversation with an ingame character you might be given three possible responses to choose from. Sometimes they are actually tagged as either Light or Dark as we have seen in the Flashpoint videos. I just wonder if this takes away some of the fun of it. Not all decisions can be as obviously Dark as slaying children. In Dragon Age, when attempting to build reputation with your companions, you have to guess what they may or may not like. Having the Light and Dark decision outlined makes it less realistic (and yes I know it's just a game, but it's role-playing isn't it!?).

What do you think? Are the highlighted selections just there for players who want to space-skip through conversations maybe?