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How it was...
Sepulcher
Member Posts: 216
As someone who played this game when it came out I will explain why it was so fun until SOE decided to start messing with things.
In the begining there were skills and no levels. That meant you could do anything at all that was relevant to your skill and you would increase it. Combat skills for example: Want to kill hundreds of womprats? Ok. Want to do tons of missions? Ok. Want to explore each world and only fight a few critters when you encounter them? Ok. You could pace yourself how ever you wanted and have fun doing it. It had a much different feel than leveling and if you didnt play it before the switch to "levels" you wont understand it regardless of how much you try. I was one of the first Bounty Hunters on Bria but I realized I wanted to do something other than fight.
Next up was crafting. Slow and tedious at first, but in time it became a lifestyle in game. I made a weaponsmith and set up on Naboo. I started off small, using a house and a cheap looking vendor to sell some basic weapons. Sales were good since everyone was just starting out. I spent my time hunting for resources and scraping a living from my shop and selling goods in town. After a while I got some mining rigs and was able to make some great weapons. In the end I was using a Guild Hall as my shop, fully furnished, rooms full of various outfits and armor for my personal use. I have vendors for pistols, carbine, rifles, and melee weapons. I even had a front desk I made out of various pieces of furniture to give my place an authentic look. I had chairs for people to sit in and I sold components and basic crafting goods at my front desk. I went from nothing to about 2 million creds in 18 days. I had a blast.
Lastly, and this is what was the best part of the game, was the scale. Having to run from my shop into town to get on a ship and fly to another planet to make a sale with someone was fun. Waiting at the starport and having conversations with people ive never met while we wait was fun. Visiting other shops and checking out their prices so I could undercut them was fun. I had regular customers, people knew me by name, and I even took custom orders for very specific types of weapons. I spent a few hours running out to the middle of nowhere, on foot long before any vehicles, just so I could set up a small house on my other account and put some weapons for sale on it at rediculously low prices. I figured if anyone ever found it they deserved some cheap weapons, I sold 5 weapons in 2 weeks, but it was great to know people were out there, exploring. I set up deals with Rebels for "exclusive" weapons that I in turn sold to Imperials under the same "exclusive" title. I had a smuggler who worked for me as my personal slicer and I gave him a cut of my profits in exchange for slicing all my customers weapons for free.
In the end it wasnt about getting places quickly it was about the journey. People were always in town talking and hanging around because it took forever to get anywhere so you pretty much had to wait at some point so you might as well chat. The game had one of the best social communities at launch. It was immersive, accomplishments meant something, exploring was fun. Hanging out in the cantina doing absolutely nothing was fun because you knew you would see some cool looking avatars walk in, or overhear some people RPing, or watch a group of dancers and musicians put on a show. There was no rush, the game was open ended, and you never knew what someone was capable of because there were no levels or tags to tip you off. I remember having on my black trenchcoat, pants, shirt, shoes, gloves, and my CE goggles sitting outside of Mos Eisley with my FWG5 at my hip fully sliced and tweaked. People would come up, ask if I was a Bounty Hunter, and I would just smile. I would challenge them and once they kicked my ass we would have a good laugh and I would point them to my shop so they could get the gun I was using.
When I read these forums and see people mention how easy it is to travel, how they dont need other people to help with anything, and how the capital cities are dead it makes me sad. Ever since I left I always wanted to go back, but I was busy doing other things with friends and couldnt find the time. Without a community and the need to interact these online games are just Single Player Games you are paying a monthly fee for.
Who else remembers release? When Eyeshot was great, Knockdown was so overpowered, and Commandos were so broken it brought tears to your eyes from laughter...
Comments
Id take SWG nowadays over that bug-fest, any day of the week.
You are 11.4583% inaccurate! See i can make up statistics too.
I hope you and the other 5 people playing the new version are having fun though, the 300,000 of us that were playing before they messed it up must be wrong.
Isn't it enough you guys have your own forum to post this sort of thing? Why do you insist on defying the rules of conduct? Someone take your wittle video game away?
Newsflash...its 2007 . Done, over, you loose. Write a letter to SOE or something, players aren't interested in how "wonderful" it WAS 2 plus years ago, tediously grinding Bols and being forced to grind everything to include tying your darn shoes while fighting a totally broken game.
Me and the other 2 people playing had a blast last night, we managed to engage in a 150v60-80 guild war, with only 2 people!!!
WOW!!
I never played SWG before or after the major changes but I think I may have enjoyed it because it sounds like it was similiar to UO? the way you had to build skills instead of gain levels.
for me a skill based MMO makes the game more interesting , it makes the game more about exploring and making your own path instead of being told what and when to things, im not saying either verson of the game is better its just when I read stuff like this it really makes me want to play this game.
in the mean time ill DL the SWG 14 day trial.
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Really? You must have not been listening
Yes I AM a vet (2003, launch) and YES i still play.
get your 7 day FREE sub to SWTOR
http://www.swtor.com/r/7DDKjQ
Yes the Game was better before the MGE because so many people played it.
The amount of people playing on now Starsider couldn't cover just the number that ran out of the Mining Outpost on Dant.
I still play so I know its dead. They took a great game and trashed it, Even Smed says they screwed up.
This is the Vets form NGE fan boys go back to yours, Thanks
Ajax
wtf is going on here?
Loved the OP, nicely said, the folks who jumped on this thread obviously have no decent game to play if they waste their time lurking on a vets forum to say how the old game was broken.
Granted, posting here about how much we enjoyed a dead game is a little sad, I'm guilty too as are many thousands more. But playing the current version and wasting your time by sitting on a forum for ex-players and slagging off their discontinued game seems very pathetic and makes them a lot sadder than me and the OP. I suggest you log back into the NGE and count yourselves lucky that you have a gaming experience that you enjoy and don't waste your time with petty bullshit since life's too short.
SWG may have been broken in a lot of respects but it was definitely worth the subscription fee, it was like an accident at birth, it didn't come out as intended but it was immersive and loads of fun.
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Really? You must have not been listening
I think people were under the impression we were getting a combat balance. I don't think people were expecting levels.
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Really? You must have not been listening
I think people were under the impression we were getting a combat balance. I don't think people were expecting levels.
I seem to remember a CURB rather than a CU being mooted and discussed, promised, touted etc.
I don't seem to remember too much "begging" at the time though, the New "Begging" Experience didn't actually come along until they got rid of the professions and turned the game on it's head.
Then we were all screaming on the forums "begging "for our game back, ....actually in fact we weren't really "begging" since I and many others would have gladly paid them to return the game
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Really? You must have not been listening
I think people were under the impression we were getting a combat balance. I don't think people were expecting levels.
Whether they got what they wanted or not, most people back then called it the Combat Upgrade...there was no reason to expect to have two different names. Either way, the point is the same.
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Really? You must have not been listening
Ok JTL was released and CU was somemonths later on test server.
Do you forgot that even prof representatives give devs hell to not release that crap then ?
Not to mention the pandemonium between Nov 1 till today $OE recieves about NGxyE.
Please tell the entirely truth here not the half you wish it were the whole.
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
The fact is nge did mess up the game in the sense that it completely and utterly changed the game that was SWG into something new, which was also called SWG. People are pissed because nge was forced unto the community after a short time on the test server, which received nearly 100% negative feedback. We vets hated change, we didn't give it a chance, and we left. Smed finally admitted that NGE was a disaster to the game, over 85% of "old" SWG players left. Some stayed, most left, and the game has repopulated with new players that did not know the game that we vets knew.
The old capital cities are dead, good, they bugged the hell out of the game, slowed load times, and were not generally fun to be in. Most people would port into Coronet and book out ASAP because of the lag. Yes we would sit around them adn talk to people because we were forced to. If you wanted to hunt you must recieve a doc's buff, and like today's doctors offices, there were long waiting times. Personally, I did not find it fun having to wait upwards of 15 minutes waiting for a 2 hr buff so I can simply go kill things. The game changed, I personally do not like it, no I have not given it a chance, I choose to keep my old memories, but am wise enough to know that my memories are flawed and SWG may be a good game today.
Essentially, this issue boils down to us old farts telling the new kids "back in my day....<insert irrelevant point about something pre nge/cu SWG>" Let the new kids have their fun, and realize that things change, we don't, and we have to live with that fact.
Try LOTRO, its great!
I guess I got to the point that I don't really see the point of comparing then and now. I do get sick of people who tell "vets" to go crawl back under rocks. If you don't like a post then don't read it or reply to it. I mean honestly that can apply to about any topic on a forum.. any forum.
Do people make stuff up to support pre-cu? Well of course they do. Or some may even remember it that was, even if its not accurate.
Do people make stuff up as to why pre-cu wasn't better? of course they do.
The game was laggy as hell? I used to run 5 and sometimes 6 clients. Yes that was on one machine and I could still run through coronet (as crowded as it was) with no frame rate loss. The reasons why I used to run 6 clients would be part of what was wrong with the game.
However, I certainly couldn't run 6 clients that smoothly now in SWG.. and there is no where near as many people in any given area.
The main point anyone makes that I will agree with is, that things were broken. In general if something is broken what do you do? Oh yes you fix it. That never happened.. oh well. Do I remember protest when JTL came out before the CU? um no.
Out of everyone I knew, I was the only one that read forums. When the combat upgrade was on TC.. no one I knew.. even was aware that one was coming. Beyond the broken things the only people I ever saw talk about combat.. were the great many whine threads based on PvP. Oh and yes PvP had a great many issues with things back then.
However, a game is based on perspective in many ways. If you and all your friends only played part of the game you had a different perspective. Then again if you want to compare PvP and PvE perspective.. you can always look at what happened to UO.
The game has issues: pre-cu, during cu and definitely during NGE.
Yet we all attempt to spin our own version of how these times were.. so that it supports our point of view.
This thead kind of illustrates real life in many ways. Looking back and saying the past was better.. while others say that "now" is better. Its all perspective..
I just get sick of seeing a lot of "facts" that I personally know weren't true.. either way.
(oh and my computer wasn't exactly bleeding edge tech back then.. but I'll never buy into any arguement of the client being "laggy as hell" back then.)
This game once had personality and community. Now it is a dead shell of what it once was. The biggest difference between then and now? Back then people actually payed for and played it. Now it has a pitiful tiny subscriber base made up mostly of station passers who only play it because it is pretty much equally as crappy as every other game on station so why not right?
It does bring a misty feeling to the eyes to remember the amazing game that it once was before instant travel and Doc buffs. Before comp armor clones and hologrind Jedi and way way way before NGE wowification.
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
LOL, and you "refugee's" don't start flaming when a NGE player tries to tell you the game doesn't suck? Being a bit hypocritical there home slice. I guess you could try to deny this, but I mean really, come on, it's pretty obvious you made you current account for one reason.
Oh, and it probably doesn't take much effort or time (therefore probably doesn't keep someone busy) being a 40 yeard old virgin. Poorly thought out insult FTW. I'll tell you what does take time though, making a brand new account just to whine about a game.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
I have to side with the OG. SWG in the beginning was a completely different animal. Going from eQ to SWG was a night/day switch. It was a totally open-ended game that enabled a player to do anything/everything.
I do remember the AFK leveling bots, but that never really effected me. I also went from combat to crafting. I was a master chef/BE and my friends had to escort me to my harvesters because I couldn't kill a womprat with my chef's hat & apron.
The first time I saw Darth Vader I think screamed like a little girl (the Star Wars fanboi that I am).
I have tried the 14-day trial twice now because I really want this game to work. It has been turned into a WoW/eQ/LoTR clone, just sci-fi. When I was able to hit level 20 as a Jedi in a few days I knew this game was never going to work for me.
Those that currently enjoy SWG good for you, but us old-timers still long for the time when we had to wait in line to get buffed by a macro Doc. lates
People were simply asking (or begging as you claim) for balance. That was the expectation. Nobody expected that "balance" meant the inroduction of a level system. No one ever asked for that. Secondly, no one ever asked for a removal of professions and an introduction of a class based system as per the NGE. What do you think would have happened if SOE told us in advance that they were making these types of changes? I'm willing to bet there would have been an outcry similar to what we saw when they introduced the very short lived zippy movement patch, and the even shorter crafting change patch.
People were really looking for an improvement to the current system at the time, not a replacement of it.
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
Actually I wasn't flamin him I was just pointing out the fact that his statistics were made up. I didnt name call or insult him. Yah there were alot of bugs at launch, but I do not recall a single person who complained about them often because the game had character. There was enough player driven entertainment to keep it fun. I guess it was a time when there were less E-Peens in the community. The game as it is now isnt as unique as the original. I was just spreading some nostalgia around and intentionally tried not to do comparisons between the new version and the old. I just explained how the old version was both for those who remember it fondly and those who never had a chance to play it.
Really? You must have not been listening
Of course they were, but let us not have this discussion again. What came out in the CU was not what was promised, nor was it what was being worked on until right before the CU launched. During those times the devs couldn't stick to an idea. I at least give them credit with the NGE. It's a horrible idea, but at least they aren't "revamping" every 3 months. As far as "Pre-CU was a bugfest", in all honesty, what has changed? If the gigantic bugs were a strike against Pre-CU, they are an even larger strike against the NGE, since many of the bugs are still there after almost 4 years of game now, and some of them are even worse.