Remembering Star Wars Galaxies, and why I loved it.

[ODST-Parker]

I know many think that SWTOR is a better game than Galaxies, but I played it for years, so I learned to love it more than any other game I've ever played. Here's why...

 

I'm not saying I hate SWTOR, I'm simply saying that it's hard to see all the great things about it with that big wall of micro-transactions in the way. I try to walk back over the stuff that I've already done, and I keep tripping on pay-walls. It's really frustrating.

 

In SWTOR, I have a level 55 Trooper, more specifically a Commando, with a big, good looking gun and a great suit of heavy armor that actually looks halfway decent (took me a while to procure that). My storyline is over, so I really only have weekly Heroic Missions (repetitive, difficult to find groups at all), PvP (horribly unbalanced), Galactic Starfighter (horribly unbalanced, terrible controls), Flashpoints (hard to find groups that fight worth a damn, and stay in the game through the entire thing), and Opera... oh, nevermind, I have to pay for Operations, and everything else after a certain number of attempts at keeping myself entertained...

 

Now... Galaxies... I had a level 90 Commando, geared with the best armor money could buy and the best weapon traders could manufacture. I was a walking tank, destroying Imperials and scoring victories for the Rebel Alliance on every planet from Tatooine to Corellia. I explored the Shadowlands of Kashyyyk, the lava rivers of Mustafar, and the cold black of space. My Nova Courier was armed to the teeth with state of the art turrets, which were operated by my guild's best gunners. I could blast TIEs out of the sky all day long and only have to go a few meters into my ship's lounge (decorated it myself) to catch a break. I could then land on any planet, go out to any empty plain or crowded city that struck me as interesting at the time, place down a nice big house, or even an extensive bunker, and decorate it to my liking with trophies taken from thousands of different enemies. From suits of armor and a weapon rack to a nice rug and a few paintings, it was all mine, and I was proud of it. I was in a high position of a large guild of great players, on my way to becoming a co-leader when the game went down, and we ran missions all day long, sometimes to get new items to use or display, or to complete unique missions in all kinds of places, and sometimes we'd just go kill Imps for fun in the giant PvP zone which was so often packed.

 

That doesn't even begin to cover all of the fun I had playing Galaxies, and that was just ONE of my three characters that I worked all the way up to be among the best.

 

And what do I get after it's cancellation...? SWTOR, the Star Wars game that keeps confusing itself with World of freakin' Warcraft...

[Fidelicatessen]

Well! THIS thread is going places!

 

*popcorn*

[ODST-Parker]

Well! THIS thread is going places!

 

*popcorn*

 

I'm not sure why this popped into my head yesterday, probably because I was reading about Project SWG. I just thought I'd share my feelings about this game and how it compares to the one that was cancelled to make way for it. I really don't expect it to go anywhere.

[OddballEasyEight]

Maby I should share some of my memories from SWG?

 

I remember driving across the open plains of tatooine and driving through ghost town after ghost town...

I remember starting a character and basically being given all my gear by crafters because they were bored and had nothing to do.

I remember standing around in cantinas alot looking at dancers for hours on end because I "had to".

I also remember the first time I saw a jedi, and it was awesome.

I also remember the tenth time I saw a jedi and it was pretty annoying since I learned from my previous encounters that they were all elitist no-lifers that liked to lord over everyone else with how awesome they were for becoming jedi.

I also remember when suddenly everyone could be a jedi and how much those same people now wept and wailed.

 

But most of all I remember the god-awful graphics and animations (even for their time)...

 

The only time I had fun in the game was when a buddy and me made "twin" characters that were tall skinny black dudes with huge afros and tight silvery shorts that worked as dancers in the mos eisley cantina. People loved us so much that they showered us with gifts... and we spent most of our time changing our looks and hairstyles.

But that got dull after a while too.

[PorsaLindahl]

I remember not having a level.

I remember when it wasn't a 9 class cookie cutter.

I remember when it wasn't Romper Room Online.

I remember seeing tons of player cities on many planets where there were always people in/round.

I remember when being a jedi really meant something.

I remember SOE losing close to half the subs on that one fatal day in April 2005. The day SWG truly died.

I remember going back after the NGE and finding ghost towns and empty plains where bustling player cities used to be.

 

I also remember lots of other "SWG this", "SWG that" posts on these forums.

 

It all boils down to this. SWG is dead and gone. It's finally been buried. If you can't get over it, find an emu and play it. Don't drag it's dead carcass through these forums. It's starting to draw flies.

[Subach]

I remember not having a level.

I remember when it wasn't a 9 class cookie cutter.

I remember when it wasn't Romper Room Online.

I remember seeing tons of player cities on many planets where there were always people in/round.

I remember when being a jedi really meant something.

I remember SOE losing close to half the subs on that one fatal day in April 2005. The day SWG truly died.

I remember going back after the NGE and finding ghost towns and empty plains where bustling player cities used to be.

 

I also remember lots of other "SWG this", "SWG that" posts on these forums.

 

It all boils down to this. SWG is dead and gone. It's finally been buried. If you can't get over it, find an emu and play it. Don't drag it's dead carcass through these forums. It's starting to draw flies.

 

These whiners, man.

 

Don't act like you hated the game, you know you loved it.

[BulletsChase]

My storyline is over, so I really only have weekly Heroic Missions (repetitive, difficult to find groups at all), PvP (horribly unbalanced), Galactic Starfighter (horribly unbalanced, terrible controls), Flashpoints (hard to find groups that fight worth a damn, and stay in the game through the entire thing)

 

Biggest load of bs I've read today

[ODST-Parker]

Biggest load of bs I've read today

 

Not exactly. Heroic Missions are tough to find groups for, at least on my server, when you have about 5-10 people on any given planet and most if not all of them aren't top level. Even daily mission sections like Section X, Makeb, etc. are usually deserted.

 

Flashpoints are difficult to complete when it spawns you into the instance with one or two members missing. Somehow, I always seem to find this problem, or I have someone leave in the middle of it without a word, or someone gets disconnected and never joins back up.

 

PvP, again on my server, seems to be flooded with Sith Assassins that just love to go around and see how many of us they can take down in one or two hits before jumping back into stealth. For some reason, I never see anyone on the Republic side role a Jedi Shadow, so... we're always kind of screwed from the beginning.

 

Don't even get me started on Galactic Starfighter... The controls are TERRIBLE, who in their right mind made the targeting reticle control both your guns (which can shoot at different angles?) AND your rotation, so after the 5 seconds it takes to close the distance between two fighters, you have to resort to spinning around each other waiting for one of you to break off and give the other a clear shot, because for some reason, blasters don't do any damage at point-blank range because the game can't figure out where your guns are aiming. The fact that it works off of an upgrade system means that a squadron of completely new fighters could be facing off against the best fighters the other squadron has to offer, with fully upgraded systems. So you explain to me how that's not unbalanced.

 

And Operatiions... Sorry, I have nothing to say about these because I've never run a single one. When I do manage to get enough money to subscribe for a couple months, no Ops guild ever wants to take the time to train me because I am coming into it where people have been at it for a couple of years, and I've never been able to find a group for a Story Mode Op on the group finder.

 

It's not bs, it's personal experience.

[Brittaany_Banks]

http://www.mediumdifficulty.com/2012/03/06/how-i-helped-destroy-star-wars-galaxies/

 

 

By Patrick Desjardins

 

I sat in front of my laptop at work, watching the videos from the previous night. While logically I knew this was Star Wars Galaxies, I recognized nothing on the screen. It was like watching a completely different game. In that video, I saw the end to what could have been an amazing game, and I saw it end with a whimper. It was like a bloated corpse, already long dead and unaware of it. It was depressing.

 

In summer 2001, I started reading up on the upcoming game. It sounded awesome. We were still a long way from public betas, but I took a real interest in the online community which had already formed. We talked constantly, speculated, made suggestions, argued about how Jedi should work; we were two years from ever even playing and we already had deep and powerful opinions about a game that didn’t exist yet. It was unprecedented. Many of us had already played EQ or UO. We knew what we wanted. We all had a deep love for the source material. We fantasized about force lightning and saber throws. We wanted to fly the Kessel Run with Han Solo and Chewie. We imagined arguing bounties with Jabba, fighting Darth Vader. We wanted it all, and Sony knew it.

 

I was 21, and had just sold my first business. Flush with cash and ready for my next adventure, I had no idea what it would be.

 

Spring 2002: The first sandbox alpha builds were being tested. Over the course of spring and summer, they got a little more advanced, and I could see the game starting to take shape. I got into the friends and family alpha tests from my involvement in the online community. I made copious suggestions, everything from combat to social aspects. I complained for a week about how the zabrak horns should look. I got involved, deep.

 

One day, I inquired as to how the economy would be structured. The answer I got very literally changed my life.

 

“We haven’t really planned for much of anything. I think the players will structure it organically.”

 

I was dumbstruck. I didn’t respond and started taking notes. I took a lot of notes — entire composition books sat next to my monitor. In hindsight, 90% of what I noted was useless, but that 10% — that was worth something.

 

Early 2003: Beta is in full swing. We got our first real look at how things were going to work, and I saw the opening. The giant hole that no one in development saw, or cared about if they did. More so than anything else, this game would be about real estate and ease of use for crafters. Supply a convenient place for everyone to go and they will go there, even if that means paying a premium.

 

I spent a lot of time in starports, counting players arriving and leaving. Establishing traffic patterns. Corillia, Naboo, Tattooine — the big three. I started running projections: where would I go first? Tat. Surely Tat, but…where would I want to live? Not in the desert. No way. Naboo, lush and green, pretty scenery, Fambas walking in the distance. Yes, this is where I would live. But there is also Coronet, the central hub for travel. If you want to go anywhere, you have to go through Coronet. That’s the meeting place, the staging point; Coronet would be the key to power. If I wanted to hold the cards, I needed to hold Coronet. I started looking at the most efficient way to place buildings outside the c-net starport. I was placing them for hours, plotting the perfect placement to not only have the closest buildings, but also to force other players to build elsewhere.

 

I started thinking a lot about human nature. I started thinking about exploiting laziness and sloth. I started thinking of this game as a business model and less as a hobby. This was now something to be mastered and exploited. I scoured forum posts for shortcuts, for exploits, for bugs that would most likely make it through to release.

 

I started thinking about the crafting, and the shortcuts there. I created timetables based on the initial samples we had. How many hours to master this, how many hours to master that. How many supplement accounts would I need to supply myself? If there are only 24 hours in a day, how could I best utilize each one?

 

I started building extra computers. I spent every spare moment preparing for day one.

 

On release day I was at EB games, cash in hand for eight copies of SWG, and I was home in a flash. I took a week’s vacation. I had the spare bedroom stocked with food and drink, my computers arrayed in a half moon.

 

Those first two weeks are a blur. I don’t remember details, I just remember the accomplishments. I remember when I mastered the first handful of professions. I remember screaming in frustration when my math wouldn’t work due to slight changes in crafting between beta and release. I remember my wife growing increasingly concerned.

 

Slowly, steadily the credits started building. I kept a tally on a whiteboard leaned against the wall. Your first million is the hardest, they say. ********. Your first 100,000 is the hardest. But I kept working, kept pulling 12, 14, 18 hour shifts in front of keyboards and tiny screens.

 

Little by little, my plan came together. Mistakes buried under accomplishments. Vendors multiplying like rabbits. Small houses, big houses, entire malls and cantinas. Credits piling up, stacks on stacks. Professions mastered, exploited, and dropped to master new ones.

 

I spent more credits in a day than most people would all year. At first my “competition” didn’t get it, but I paid and they didn’t care.

 

They were standing on a track and couldn’t see the train. I wasn’t slowing down. If anything, I just went faster.

 

I clearly remember the day that I realized I had done it. It was maybe two or three months in, and I controlled not only the land around Coronet, but Theed as well. It was mine. People used my vendors because they were closer, and for no other reason. Slowly I increased my prices, 2%, 5%, 10%… and they lined up to buy. People were hologrinding and didn’t care what it cost. It was a full-time gig just keeping the vendors supplied.

 

Six months in and I realized I had more money than I could ever possibly spend. I needed to off-load it, and I needed help. Enter the Thai.

 

His name was Tan, and he needed a reliable stream of credits. See, Tan worked for a re-seller and my little enterprise was making his job difficult. He had no problem on other servers, but on those that I was on, his percentages were way down. Why not work together? Why not indeed. After a week of negotiations and arrangements we were set and money was changing hands, with an interesting side-effect.

 

The same people who were buying my credits from Tan were turning around and using them at my vendors, usually with more of their own credits as well.

 

I was now making real-world money for making virtual money by making real money. It was amazing, and it worked perfectly. I would transfer 10 mil credits to Tan; he would pay me via bank transfer. He would then sell the fake money for real money at around a 100% mark-up. The player would get his 500k or million, and turn around and buy my merchandise for 1.5mil. This happened across the board, at all levels.

 

I remember with crystal clarity when I realized I was making more money from this enterprise than I was at my full-time job. I quickly decided to expand and hired four guys in Singapore to play 24/7. I paid them unreasonably well for the time, almost 3x as much as they would for other re-sellers; this bought me loyalty, and in this enterprise, loyalty is everything.

 

Soon the money was stacking fast and I needed to expand again, and again. At the peak, I employed 12 men and women. I controlled, for the most part, the economy on four servers, and I was bringing in almost a six-figure salary.

 

My wife went from hating the fact that I was obsessed with the game to helping me run the books and check on the numbers. She made suggestions on rates and agreements, and in turn, I bought her a car, and we bought a house.

 

After almost two years, I could see that this would not last. Player counts were dropping; the game was being mishandled more and more. When they did away with the holo-grinding, it wrecked a large part of my business model. And again, when the Jedi-village went live, it was the final nail. No one needed to spend vast amounts on anything any more. You could just become a Jedi from a quest chain.

 

I started shutting down my enterprise. I had bought and sold dozens and dozens of accounts, billions of credits; for the remaining players on my servers, my accounts were fixtures. They were how they functioned, they were how they survived. Most had no clue it was one person pulling all these strings, and in the end, I liked it that way. I stopped “playing” the day I was killed in Theed starport by a fresh new Jedi who didn’t understand how to even play the game.

 

I couldn’t even bring myself to fight back. I just stood there. I was one of the few true Dark Jedi Masters, and I let him kill me. That very act illustrated perfectly what SOE did wrong. Those of us who had faithfully put in the hours and weeks and months required to earn those lightsabers were spit on and betrayed by the very architects of the game we loved.

 

Now obviously I did my share of exploiting the game, and your share, and his, and hers. But I put in the work to holo-grind. I put in the work to move my way up endlessly grinding on fambas in Naboo, cats in Corrilea, and rancors on Dathomir. I didn’t buy my personal Jedis; I earned them. I knew the game, I knew the struggle, and I knew what it took to get them.

 

And in the end? On my last day playing? You could start a new toon who was already a Jedi. I walked away and I never looked back. That moment at my desk, 10 years after it started, I sadly closed the window and went back to work.

 

Because it wasn’t the game I loved. That game died in 2005 with the NGE/CU. It died when developers turned their backs on the gamers who had spent the effort and instead listened to the lazy, whining voices who wanted it all given to them.

 

Ironically, those voices were the same people who happily handed Tan money for the credits I provided. Happily handed me stacks of cash for Jedi accounts. Did I help in the demise of SWG? Yes. That is something I accepted long ago. The game that I loved so much, I helped to destroy.

 

Patrick Desjardins is an American programmer and graphic artist.

[Subach]

http://www.mediumdifficulty.com/2012/03/06/how-i-helped-destroy-star-wars-galaxies/

 

*EXTREMELY huge snip*

 

[/Quote]

 

Seriously? Why would you copypaste literally an entire article into a forum? Hyperlinks exist for a reason.

 

Anyway, I read the article, and the subject is completely missing the point of the failure of SOE. The gold farmers aren't the problem; they are simply the symptom of the developers' incompetence, which everybody knows is the real reason SWG died.

 

...sound familiar, anyone?

Edited May 30, 2014 by Subach

[DigitalWar]

Seriously? Why would you copypaste literally an entire article into a forum? Hyperlinks exist for a reason.

 

Anyway, I read the article, and the subject is completely missing the point of the failure of SOE. The gold farmers aren't the problem; they are simply the symptom of the developers' incompetence, which everybody knows is the real reason SWG died.

 

...sound familiar, anyone?

 

I will post later on on why i loved SWG, but for now id like to say i agree with you. They probably had one of the worst dev teams, as well as management teams in the history of mmo's. Swg died because of them not at all from gold farming. The fact that john smedly is still in charge over there baffles me. sony being the parent company should have stepped in at somepoint to say *** is goin on there. U are messing with our profits. But they let it go on.

 

So ihave never bought a sony product since, never paid to go see a movie made by sony pictures, never bought a laptop with even a battery made by sony, nothing. I also still to this day tell all my friends, relatives, people who work for me ect, Do not buy sony! ive maybe only stopped sony from getting between 30k-50k from people. Its a drop in soe's overall billions but it makes me feel good each time i take that drop away from them. Ive already explained to my gamer friends about soe's gaming practices and have steered them away from eq next.

 

Tbh im not a fan of bioware atm. the game is in disarray and they half step on their releases even the upcoming ones, but at least im not gettin screwed over after 2 years. So swtor is where ill be for at least a lil while. May SWG R.I.P.

[ODST-Parker]

I will post later on on why i loved SWG, but for now id like to say i agree with you. They probably had one of the worst dev teams, as well as management teams in the history of mmo's. Swg died because of them not at all from gold farming. The fact that john smedly is still in charge over there baffles me. sony being the parent company should have stepped in at somepoint to say *** is goin on there. U are messing with our profits. But they let it go on.

 

So ihave never bought a sony product since, never paid to go see a movie made by sony pictures, never bought a laptop with even a battery made by sony, nothing. I also still to this day tell all my friends, relatives, people who work for me ect, Do not buy sony! ive maybe only stopped sony from getting between 30k-50k from people. Its a drop in soe's overall billions but it makes me feel good each time i take that drop away from them. Ive already explained to my gamer friends about soe's gaming practices and have steered them away from eq next.

 

Tbh im not a fan of bioware atm. the game is in disarray and they half step on their releases even the upcoming ones, but at least im not gettin screwed over after 2 years. So swtor is where ill be for at least a lil while. May SWG R.I.P.

 

I'll agree that the game didn't have the best development team in the world, and there were many problems in the game, but I still consider it the best sandbox MMO I've ever played. Since I don't have the time nor the money to invest in EVE Online, it will probably remain that way until another comes along. I literally built a life in that game, as stupid as that sounds, and it was the most fun I've ever had playing a video game with other people.

[theUndead]

This entire thread is thinly veiled attempt to brag about how amazing SWG was and how it does not compare to SWTOR. First of all OP, this belongs in off topic because it is describing another game, second of all the first half of your post was reasonable until you started mentioning the CM and why it's bad etc.

 

This is the thing with SWG fans that annoy me, Why do you feel the need to belittle this game, just because you so called amazing game was cancelled? I mean I understand the nostalgia but the way you described it has rose colored glasses all over it.

 

The game is gone and let it go. This is game is NOT SWG and will never be it and finally stop making comparisons to it.

[ODST-Parker]

This entire thread is thinly veiled attempt to brag about how amazing SWG was and how it does not compare to SWTOR. First of all OP, this belongs in off topic because it is describing another game, second of all the first half of your post was reasonable until you started mentioning the CM and why it's bad etc.

 

This is the thing with SWG fans that annoy me, Why do you feel the need to belittle this game, just because you so called amazing game was cancelled? I mean I understand the nostalgia but the way you described it has rose colored glasses all over it.

 

The game is gone and let it go. This is game is NOT SWG and will never be it and finally stop making comparisons to it.

 

Thinly veiled? That's exactly what it is, I have no problem saying that. I loved the game, and I do think that SWTOR cannot possible compare to it. If you don't like my opinion, then stop reading, it's as simple as that. This is actually quite on topic, unless you think that criticism has no place in forums. If I want to spread my opinion that SWG was a vastly better game, who are you to say my opinion is right or wrong?

 

I'm being honest based off of my experience, SWG was a much better sandbox game, even considering some big problems and graphics that some considered outdated. SWTOR is much more "on rails", and isn't a true sandbox. It's a long chain of quests that leaves you with nothing but a lot of repeating content, at least until they release something new. I could always find something fun to do in SWG, with so many collections and hidden quests to find and complete. After eight years, more entertaining content was still being released right up until the end.

 

I only write this at all, and I only "belittle" SWTOR, because after going back and watching a few videos from when the game was going done, and after finally finding a project to re-release the game as an unofficial emulator, I realized that SWG was cancelled because this crappy WoW-inspired piece of garbage, with less requirement to think about what you're doing than Call of Duty, appealed more to MMO players. I, and other loyal SWG players, got to watch our game get shut down because people didn't want a harder game. Apparently, instead of a huge sandbox where you could create your own character and story, people wanted a straight line that spreads out a little bit here and there, leading to one point where there's nothing left but repetition.

[DigitalWar]

I loved Swg, and playing swtor makes me realise how much i miiss it.

 

SWG was my first real mmo. The only online game i played before that was Diablo2. I remember trying to find info for diablo2 on a website, and came across a article about a upcoming star wars game online. I was like 0.o. So i read it and at the end was a link to see a preview. So of course eager with excitement i went and watched it. At the end of watching it my face probably had the expression of Omg on it. I could live in the star wars universe, and the hook was it would be my story. not someone elses.

Here is the link to that trailer via youtube.

 

I still remeber it well. I was hooked i Had to find out more about this game. Was it real or just some sad prank? I searched the internet for weeks, went to their website, tied every game site known to man and stil couldnt get enough and believe it. Days, weeks and even months passed, when would it come out? Of course i was a complete noob to online gaming back then. iI had no idea there was a beta test we could sign up for. Oh still wanna kick myself for that. I only found out about the beta, weeks before it was to launch. I was too late. But the game as at hand. I had preordered, took 2 weeks off from work and rdy to play the moment it arrived.

 

Sure enough launch day as at hand and the game had not arrived. i was checking my order status every 2 mins with i think it was fedex or ups back then. It said in route lol, i was gonna give the guy a piece of my mind when he got there. But when he did get there, i was too excited, so signed and then shut the door in his face and ran to my computer to start the install. Why did i have all these disks to install? I just wanted to play. Keeping one eye on the install and 2 hands to make lunch, i waited the bloody thing out, and finally, it was ready. I was about to live a dream and become part of the star wars universe. I launched the game and sure enough i was on my way... But wait. there is a problem it said. Cant connect... are u f....n kiddin me. One of the saddest days ever, SWG's login server crashed. they were having massive problems. i had called customer service to learn of this. Could i make it one more day or maybe more till this was fixed? Still the internet noob, i was lost.

 

The next day came after a very short 2-3 hours sleep and dismayed at the outcome of the day before, i loaded the game up once again. Although i was expecting further disappointment, I was filled with joy when the game let me log in to the char creation screen. I had made it. I was able to be whoever i wanted in the star wars universe. I grew up in the 60's and 70's. I went to go see star wars opening night with my friend in 1977. It was amazing, but who did i want to be lke from the movies. I wasn't sure but it was my adventure. I did enjoy the villainy of Darth maul...maybe a lil too much, so i made my first toon a zabrak.

 

Off i was into the game. Again no beta testing and still a noob, i chose to go to corellia. Not to coronet, but to a small city. I figured less population=less lag and things would be easier done without too many people around. That was a great week of learning how to move in game learning the mechanics and meeting new people. What a amazing community too. After that first week, i finally went to coronet, to see this spaceport and what else corellia had to offer. I was like ..really? Everyone was geared people running around selling stuff, people travelling to other planets. there was so much going on i had to take it all in. In fact there was so much going on i felt a bit lost all over again.

 

After about 3 weeks in game, i was starting to doubt myself. i was falling behind everyone else and although i made a few friends they were constantly off doing things on their own. About that same time i went to tattoine. The very next day i met a nice girl with a tag over her name. It said, Helper. She waved and i waved back. she sent me a tell and asked how things were goin? I told her i was having trouble finding what i needed to do. She invited me to a group, and she explained dhe had been a beta tester and knew almost everything. She took the next month and logged on every day with me, and i learned about the amazing game that was SWG. She took her own time and effort and Taught me things i would have never figured out on my own. I had made a real friend and she too had made one.

 

After a month She had simply disappeared. My friend without a word was gone. I looked each and every day for her but nothing. I was alone in this big universe, but i was now prepared for it. Everyone was in a frennzy to unlock their jedi, my self included. Finally the first one was out, everyone was like me next me me me... how did this person do it? Finally the second was done, then another. Omg why am i not one of them. I finally unlocked i had to be in the top 100 unlocks. U had to simply try diff professions. I stumbled upon it after my 5th one if i remember correctly. By stumbled i didn't know it was proff bound at the time. I was off into hiding, but a huge smile on my face. I had unlocked and was too happy to care about anything else. I showed off to my new friends and ganked people in star-ports, and had a flippin blast. only coming across other jedi did i have epic battles. My dark jedi knight vs their jedi knight.

 

Oh the humanity of the bh who tried to come after me. i dispatched them and their friends far more than i could count. Bu their eventually became some good bounty hunters. A few kept me locked down in my own house on more than one occasion. It was actually good meeting foes who gave u a challenge. even if it took 2 or 3 of them.

But some of the best pvp of my life was in bestine on tattione. we would raid anchorhead the rebels would defend, or they would raid us. It was great because the two cities were so close. There were great battles with 40+ people on each side. and of course everyone wanted to kill the jedi. Those jealous fools. i remember getting lit up like Christmas from 4-5 combat medics throwing their disease's. and everyone who could get a shot in on me tried as well. i took several people with me, even if i was to fall.

 

I had finally got to live my dream. It was amazing But there still more to this game. The game is a sandbox, so u get to choose what u wanna do, not be told. So i learned to hunt Krayt dragons for pearls, kill rancor cause i could, look for ackly, go into space and do combat. there was so much, yet i was still missing something. I added my self a second account. You were very limited to 2 toons back then per account. if i remember correctly. or was it one with the second slot if u unlocked. Been ages, maybe someone will remember. Anyways i made a crafter on this new account. ha what a grind. i was behind all the crafters. but i dug in and went to work. finally made a master architect. Sold everything i could. Got resources from some walmart supply type guys and i was in buss. i was making credits and running around on my dark jedi, this was awesome.

 

About 2 months before the release of the nge, my mystery friend who had vanished 2 years earlier was online. i couldn't believe this. She hadn't played a day since i had last seen her. Her son had died from sids.(sudden infant death syndrome). She was amazed at how much i had done and that i was still here playing. I of course returned the favor, and taught her everything with the new changes. Most the time we just sat and talked though. someone remembered me after 2 years. Thats what friends do i suppose. The Nge came of course and i couldnt bring myself to play that. I left everything i had to her. I wished her the best, as she decided to stay with it. She was a die-hard star wars fan she explained lol. I logged on once to a comeback and take a free look at swg now type deal, but she had gone some people explained to me. missed her by a few months. Where to nobody knew.

 

The greatest thing about swg to me was the community. Ill never forget that girl and how she helped me to understand the nature of gaming and how to make a friend online.

Ill also miss the great hunting, the crafting, the resource gathering, the nightsisters, the exploring, the amazing housung system, the incredible space, even the 15 min wait for a shuttle is missed right about now.

The badges were earned back then not given to u or bought.

The cantina's full of life and fun, dancing and playing music were in several 24 hours a day.

 

There was more to that messed up bug ridden game, than will ever be to swtor in in the next 20 expansions.

 

This post is dedicated in memory of my friend ...Tina. Wherever u went to, May the force be with you.

[DigitalWar]

I forgot to mention that my friend Tina also imparted to me something i keep with me. A touch of kindness! I am always helping others in game when possible, and even sometimes when its not convenient for myself. When people troll them, i take those few minutes to explain to a new player where they need to go on fleet to ge their training if they missed it, how to get their ship, how to que for a wz or fp. all the little things that can make someones game experience a lil better. Yeah im that guy. I want people to stay and play, and ive made a few friends along the way. Just wish more of you would try it.

[Darkelefantos]

I played SWG since pre-NGE. I kept playing after NGE. Up to about a year before it was officially trashed prior to TOR's release. More than half a dozen years. Logging in every day, thinking I'm playing a game that I like and enjoy.

 

Slowly, over time, my guild started dying. Good friends I found in that guild went to play games like LOTRO or AoC. In the end, I was the last man standing in a dead guild. Emphasis on "dead guild", as the brother of our guild leader actually died of cancer during that phase.

 

Even when they gave people free character transfers to switch them from their dead servers, nothing really changed. I joined another guild with people I'd known for a while. And that died a slow death aswell. Then I joined another guild, prior to SWTOR's announcement.

 

At this point, all I did was to, day in and day out, log in in the remote chance of getting some PvP in Restuss. And TOR's announcement was the final straw. I quit SWG and waited patiently for this game to come out. Because that was when I realised - the game I thought I enjoy so much that I play it every day... has nothing to give me. It bored me. Through and through. If I wanted to have fun playing the game, I didn't play on any of the actual servers. I played on the Test Center servers. No tedious grinding, instant action, and more people than most normal servers.

 

But in the end, I was just done. I wanted SWG to get out of my life. Preferably forever. Which is not to say I didn't consider reactivating my account to see what would be going on in the final week of its existence. I did. But I stopped myself from doing that.

 

That game is dead. Stop beating a dead horse. Let it rest. More importantly, let me rest.

If I had video footage and editing skills, I would make a montage of the good days with really sad music now.

[Jeweledleah]

Thinly veiled? That's exactly what it is, I have no problem saying that. I loved the game, and I do think that SWTOR cannot possible compare to it. If you don't like my opinion, then stop reading, it's as simple as that. This is actually quite on topic, unless you think that criticism has no place in forums. If I want to spread my opinion that SWG was a vastly better game, who are you to say my opinion is right or wrong?

 

I'm being honest based off of my experience, SWG was a much better sandbox game, even considering some big problems and graphics that some considered outdated. SWTOR is much more "on rails", and isn't a true sandbox. It's a long chain of quests that leaves you with nothing but a lot of repeating content, at least until they release something new. I could always find something fun to do in SWG, with so many collections and hidden quests to find and complete. After eight years, more entertaining content was still being released right up until the end.

 

I only write this at all, and I only "belittle" SWTOR, because after going back and watching a few videos from when the game was going done, and after finally finding a project to re-release the game as an unofficial emulator, I realized that SWG was cancelled because this crappy WoW-inspired piece of garbage, with less requirement to think about what you're doing than Call of Duty, appealed more to MMO players. I, and other loyal SWG players, got to watch our game get shut down because people didn't want a harder game. Apparently, instead of a huge sandbox where you could create your own character and story, people wanted a straight line that spreads out a little bit here and there, leading to one point where there's nothing left but repetition.

 

see, there's your problem. SWTOR was never a sandbox game, was never advertised as sandbox game. it was always meant to be theme park and you really cannot compare the two. you obviously prefer sandbox types, but that doesn't objectively make Galaxies better. it ONLY makes them better for you.

 

its like comparing mystery novel to a book of poetry, and you being a mystery fan with no particular liking for poetry. of COURSE mystery novel would seem better for you, but take someone who doesn't care for mystery novels but love poetry? and they will have an opposite experience of the one you had.

 

do not blame the game for the fact that you had expectations that had nothing to do with reality. not to mention... blaming galaxies shutdown on SWTOR is like blaming shutdown of warhammer on guild wars 2. correlation =/= causation.

 

and btw - sandbox? doesn't make it harder either. or more challenging or whatever. anyways, apples and oranges.

 

me. never been a fan of sandbox games, and galaxies in particular didn't even blip on my radar. SWTOR on the other hand? gimme.

[ODST-Parker]

see, there's your problem. SWTOR was never a sandbox game, was never advertised as sandbox game. it was always meant to be theme park and you really cannot compare the two. you obviously prefer sandbox types, but that doesn't objectively make Galaxies better. it ONLY makes them better for you.

 

its like comparing mystery novel to a book of poetry, and you being a mystery fan with no particular liking for poetry. of COURSE mystery novel would seem better for you, but take someone who doesn't care for mystery novels but love poetry? and they will have an opposite experience of the one you had.

 

do not blame the game for the fact that you had expectations that had nothing to do with reality. not to mention... blaming galaxies shutdown on SWTOR is like blaming shutdown of warhammer on guild wars 2. correlation =/= causation.

 

and btw - sandbox? doesn't make it harder either. or more challenging or whatever. anyways, apples and oranges.

 

me. never been a fan of sandbox games, and galaxies in particular didn't even blip on my radar. SWTOR on the other hand? gimme.

 

As I said in the very beginning, I don't hate SWTOR, I simply believe it was wrong to cancel SWG, and the introduction of SWTOR was a great part of that decision. And of course it's just my opinion, I just thought I'd share my experience and see if others thought the same. I like sandbox games a lot more because there is no clearly defined path. I remember my first time playing SWG, when I really didn't get involved in the social aspect of it at first. I got to a point in the main story line where it just seemed to end, and I thought "Well, what now?" I later met up with a guild that helped me out, and I finally saw the majority of the game, and it took me years to get to where I was when it shut down, nearly leading the guild that took me in.

[AbsolutGrndZero]

I felt nothing when SWG was shut down. Why? Because the game that was shut down wasn't the game I purchased. I was there at launch (day 3), I was there for the Jump to Lightspeed expansion, I pre-ordered the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion for the bonus Creature Handler content and was part of the class action lawsuit threat (and got a full refund of the expansion cost rather than let us go through with the class action suit) over how they used all the new CH content to sell the expansion, then a week into the expansion completely removed the entire class in the "NGE upgrade".

 

For those that never played it at launch, I can understand liking the game, but I honestly think that SWG's shut down was a mercy killing of the game, as it really died years before.

 

Put it this way... Order of awesome...

 

1. SWG pre-NGE

2. SWtOR

3. Every other game in existence.

4. SWG after the NGE.

Edited June 1, 2014 by AbsolutGrndZero

[ODST-Parker]

I felt nothing when SWG was shut down. Why? Because the game that was shut down wasn't the game I purchased. I was there at launch (day 3), I was there for the Jump to Lightspeed expansion, I pre-ordered the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion for the bonus Creature Handler content and was part of the class action lawsuit threat (and got a full refund of the expansion cost rather than let us go through with the class action suit) over how they used all the new CH content to sell the expansion, then a week into the expansion completely removed the entire class in the "NGE upgrade".

 

For those that never played it at launch, I can understand liking the game, but I honestly think that SWG's shut down was a mercy killing of the game, as it really died years before.

 

Put it this way... Order of awesome...

 

1. SWG pre-NGE

2. SWtOR

3. Every other game in existence.

4. SWG after the NGE.

 

I never quite understood the complaints about the NGE update. I played for about 6 months before and nearly every day after. I'm even contributing to Project SWG, which attempts to recreate the game as it was when it shut down, NGE and all, and even promises to add more completely new content after that.

 

I know that the game was made a lot more "simple" compared to the pre-CU game, but I liked it just as much, if not better, because it added a lot more things that balanced out that fact. I didn't care that being a Jedi wasn't hard anymore, I loved the new ability system, I loved nearly everything about it.

 

This is the thing that I don't understand about people who support SWTOR as better than the post-CU/NGE SWG. It's even more simplified, instantly becoming a Jedi makes up half of the class system, and it's not even close to how expansive SWG was on its worst day.

[Zoom_VI]

For a game that had a relatively small playerbase, they sure are fanatical.

[ODST-Parker]

For a game that had a relatively small playerbase, they sure are fanatical.

 

And proud of it! There were enough to keep it interesting, at least.

[theUndead]

Thinly veiled? That's exactly what it is, I have no problem saying that. I loved the game, and I do think that SWTOR cannot possible compare to it. If you don't like my opinion, then stop reading, it's as simple as that. This is actually quite on topic, unless you think that criticism has no place in forums. If I want to spread my opinion that SWG was a vastly better game, who are you to say my opinion is right or wrong?

 

I'm being honest based off of my experience, SWG was a much better sandbox game, even considering some big problems and graphics that some considered outdated. SWTOR is much more "on rails", and isn't a true sandbox. It's a long chain of quests that leaves you with nothing but a lot of repeating content, at least until they release something new. I could always find something fun to do in SWG, with so many collections and hidden quests to find and complete. After eight years, more entertaining content was still being released right up until the end.

 

I only write this at all, and I only "belittle" SWTOR, because after going back and watching a few videos from when the game was going done, and after finally finding a project to re-release the game as an unofficial emulator, I realized that SWG was cancelled because this crappy WoW-inspired piece of garbage, with less requirement to think about what you're doing than Call of Duty, appealed more to MMO players. I, and other loyal SWG players, got to watch our game get shut down because people didn't want a harder game. Apparently, instead of a huge sandbox where you could create your own character and story, people wanted a straight line that spreads out a little bit here and there, leading to one point where there's nothing left but repetition.

 

First of all don't tell me to stop reading or giving my opinion your not a moderator. Second thing is this game as another poster said was NEVER classified as a sandbox. Finally what gives you the right to come here on this games forum and trash it just because your precious game is no longer here? I have just as much right to tell you what I think as you do to tell me what you think. That does not mean I agree nor does it mean I will stop posting.

 

 

You guys are the most fanatical fans have I have ever seen and you seriously do not know how to let go. I might add that if you despise this game so much why do bother to pay 15 bucks a month to post? You sound like a petulant child screaming because someone took away something nice from you. Guess what the real world does not work like that and it would appear that the higher ups felt that your so called perfect game was not living up to scratch therefore it got cancelled.

 

But don't for a second think that just because SWTOR was billed as a completely different game meant it was going to be another SWG because it was not. Period. Also this is not about criticism because if it were you would be doing this constructively not explicitly bad mouthing SWTOR or anyone else who does not think SWG was great.

 

So here is my final take. I personally am sick to death of the constant comparisons between what was a sandbox game vs a thempark game. SWTOR is what it is and you should either accept it or don't. But stop coming posting of how amazing SWG was and then in the same breath bash SWTOR on their forums. This is NOT SWG, this game will NEVER be SWG. Your game is dead. Accept it and for the love of anything move on.

 

Oh and if you don't like my opinion, suck it up.

[Sangrar]

Thinly veiled? That's exactly what it is, I have no problem saying that. I loved the game, and I do think that SWTOR cannot possible compare to it. If you don't like my opinion, then stop reading, it's as simple as that. This is actually quite on topic, unless you think that criticism has no place in forums. If I want to spread my opinion that SWG was a vastly better game, who are you to say my opinion is right or wrong?

 

I'm being honest based off of my experience, SWG was a much better sandbox game, even considering some big problems and graphics that some considered outdated. SWTOR is much more "on rails", and isn't a true sandbox. It's a long chain of quests that leaves you with nothing but a lot of repeating content, at least until they release something new. I could always find something fun to do in SWG, with so many collections and hidden quests to find and complete. After eight years, more entertaining content was still being released right up until the end.

 

I only write this at all, and I only "belittle" SWTOR, because after going back and watching a few videos from when the game was going done, and after finally finding a project to re-release the game as an unofficial emulator, I realized that SWG was cancelled because this crappy WoW-inspired piece of garbage, with less requirement to think about what you're doing than Call of Duty, appealed more to MMO players. I, and other loyal SWG players, got to watch our game get shut down because people didn't want a harder game. Apparently, instead of a huge sandbox where you could create your own character and story, people wanted a straight line that spreads out a little bit here and there, leading to one point where there's nothing left but repetition.

 

swg's contract was going to be over by 2012 anyway, so swg was not going to last too much longer anyway so lucasarts and soe both knew it would be better to shut down swg by that point. He was not threatened by this game before hand because he knew they would probably attract different audiences considering one was a sandbox and this game was a themepark. Either way, you surely had to know swg was not going to last forever, and again with that contract about to expire, it was not going to last too much longer than it did anyway so it was better to end it on its own terms, especially considering negative reviews after that whole redesign stuff which Smedley even admitted had some mistakes.

 

Speaking of which, OF COURSE SWTOR IS NOT AS GOOD A SANDBOX AS SWG. Do you know why? Because, SWTOR IS A THEMEPARK MMO. Aka, NOT a sanbox. You saying that swg is a better sanbox game than swtor is like saying A camaro is a better at being a Chevrolet car than a Mitsubishi is!! The point is, this is a completely different type of game than swg, I suggest you accept it, swg had its day. But didn't people go on a few months ago about how smedley announced something similar to swg? if so then if I were you I would begin following that project and seeing where that goes if you like swg type stuff so badly.

 

 

also, he can read and respond all he wants, you post something on the forums you will have responses, some you like and some you don't, the number of either depending on majority opinion, if you post on the forums get ready for disagreement just fyi.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Sangrar