NGE or not this game still offers/offered things you don't see if any other game. Really sad to see this one go. I mean seriously, look at the MMO's out there right now, is the NGE really THAT bad? Sure it sucked at first but look at your options.
NGE or not this game still offers/offered things you don't see if any other game. Really sad to see this one go. I mean seriously, look at the MMO's out there right now, is the NGE really THAT bad? Sure it sucked at first but look at your options.
Still, people voted with their wallets, SWG just didn't bring in enough money for SOE to bother with a new (probably more expensive) license deal with Lucas art.
It is too bad but any other company would have closed it down years ago, it just didn't have enough players anymore.
Star Wars is about pew pew and FPS style action combat not EQ cloned button mashing cooldowns. The combat system the upgraded SWG to was semi decent. Obvioulsy it was pretty flawed as you could shoot through walls and shit but it still a hell of a lot better than the original EQ in space one.
What was not good was the changing of the class system and the dumbing down of the game into a WOW clone complete with traits and all that shit. The original skill based system was fine as it was.
However what Sony really messed up on was right at the very beginning. There were 2 games in devlopment in the eary 2000's - SWG and PlanetSide. PlanetSide was the unknown variable with very little marketing behind it whilst SWG was the one that got all the media attention. However PlanetSide offered full FPS combat by was massively multiplayer (well 399 players on one map). So what Sony really missed out on was putting the combat system developed in PlanetSide into SWG. Imagine a game where you had all the depth of SWG with all the fun of the PlanetSide combat system (ie an FPS). That game would have been so good we might even have stopped the development of WOW as it would have been the ultimate mix. It would have seen the end of shitty EQ clones. It would have been a game I would still play today!
But people please get some perspective. The original SWG was good but certainly nothing new or spectacular. If it was your first MMO then you are just writing the same generic comments that people always write about thier first MMO. Lets not go over the top about SWG it was OK but not brilliant - it could have been but it was'nt.
However SWG certainly will always be better than the kiddy friendly new SWTOR that is coming out!
Star Wars is about pew pew and FPS style action combat not EQ cloned button mashing cooldowns. The combat system the upgraded SWG to was semi decent. Obvioulsy it was pretty flawed as you could shoot through walls and shit but it still a hell of a lot better than the original EQ in space one.
What was not good was the changing of the class system and the dumbing down of the game into a WOW clone complete with traits and all that shit. The original skill based system was fine as it was.
However what Sony really messed up on was right at the very beginning. There were 2 games in devlopment in the eary 2000's - SWG and PlanetSide. PlanetSide was the unknown variable with very little marketing behind it whilst SWG was the one that got all the media attention. However PlanetSide offered full FPS combat by was massively multiplayer (well 399 players on one map). So what Sony really missed out on was putting the combat system developed in PlanetSide into SWG. Imagine a game where you had all the depth of SWG with all the fun of the PlanetSide combat system (ie an FPS). That game would have been so good we might even have stopped the development of WOW as it would have been the ultimate mix. It would have seen the end of shitty EQ clones. It would have been a game I would still play today!
But people please get some perspective. The original SWG was good but certainly nothing new or spectacular. If it was your first MMO then you are just writing the same generic comments that people always write about thier first MMO. Lets not go over the top about SWG it was OK but not brilliant - it could have been but it was'nt.
However SWG certainly will always be better than the kiddy friendly new SWTOR that is coming out!
Good post! I could not have said this better myself.
If SWG has decent combat a la PlanetSide then it really would have been the best game ever. Imagine the PvP sceens in cities with real twitch based lazer fire, ducking behind walls, the wars that would have raged on all over the galaxy.
It would have been immence. Also when you wanted to take a break from the galactic war you could have gotten immersed in the quests, crafting, city building,etc. Oh what a missed opportunity SWG was.
Really strange that more people do not see this.
Territory control a la PlanetSide but with the richness of the SWG universe = best MMO ever.
"I remember trying to tame baby critters and being eaten by the irate mother, a hundred times over. I remember nonchalantly lounging around in NPC cities with my three awesome petsout for show, back before they took that ability out."
Heck yeah!
"I remember crunching numbers on newly-spawned resources and touring as many planets as I had time for trying to track down the magic resource that would kill all previous resources when it came to making weapons, armor or harvesters."
I actually had other folks find and collect resources (did a little myself) for my master weaponsmith, was easy to have a quality community with many parts to fill. I had my own tailor friend - I could go to him and get a sweet custom suit whenever I wanted and make my toon look awesome. Good times. Exploration and creature taming along with making super powerful sledges and pistols haven't been rivaled yet.
I don't think too many people would argue that the combat system was perfect, often far from it; likewise the game had far more bugs than it should have had and could have been much better than it was.
If peoples opinions of the game, irrespective of the above are positive then it's a bit rich to suggest that those comments are just generic because to some it was their first MMO. SWG had so much more to it than just the combat. I still maintain that the crafting system was the best and most involved I've seen in any MMO and the sandbox gave diversity to what you could do when you logged in to play however you wanted to.
If my opinion of the game is deemed 'generic' because I think that it had a great community of players that made the game better than what it actually was, then so be it. In that respect, SWG has not been beaten in all the MMO's i've played since. That opinion, which I suspect is shared by others, is purely my own and not just jumping on the sentimental bandwagon as this game reaches the end of its life.
Just because what others think doesn't match your own perspective on something doesn't mean their opinion is any less valuable.
So they are closing SWG in December 2011 - just before launch of SWTOR. Could we suppose that SOE just clearing server cluster, to launch a new game? I bet BioWare and LucasArts going to sell SWTOR to SOE (because last one have wonderful customer support and lots of experience in mmorpg), that's why they need servers. :-)
"...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
I also have very fond memories of pre-cu SWG. As others have said the game was far from perfect and had a plethora of bugs (going the Smuggler route was painful), but it had such an awesome community and atmosphere that even those issues couldn't stop us from building something great (in my opinion). I too remember long nights at the cantina, drink in hand, relaxing after a hard scuffle while the band and dancers lifted my burdens and spirit. Simply being able to have that experience, the sheer fact that there were professions designed specifically for entertainment, was one of the things I loved about SWG (and also one of the things I love about LOTRO as well).
Not everyone wants to "pew pew" and the the variety of professions and the interdependency between them was an excellent feature. Crafting wasn't simply a side skill that you picked up, it was a complex mechanic that required dedication to finding the resources that would surely produce wares that were unequaled in all the galaxy. Those who chose to master their art were respected members of the community whose craftmanship was sought far and wide.
Musicians would lull you into contentment with their melodies and dancers would entrance you with their graceful movements. Every profession had value (although, as a smuggler, ours wasn't quite complete yet).
Sharing laughs over fine drink after a hunt, walking the bustling streets of Coronet, seeing the city that you and your friends built from nothing grow and thrive, taking your first starship out for her maiden voyage among the stars that you had gazed at so often. These and many other wonderful things are what made SWG great.
Opinions on the NGE will always vary and even I will admit that not all of the changes were completely horrible, but for me it was the aftermath that made me decide my time in that universe was at an end. After being away for a couple months I decided to give it a chance, and I was met at the Coronet starport with silence. There was not a soul in sight during what would normally be one of the starports busiest times. I made my way out to our city on the off chance that some of its residents might still be lingering; I found only desolation, a ghost town. As I made my way through various spots that used to flourish, I was met by the occasional traveler but most didn't even acknowledge my hails, and most of my destinations held the same emptiness. I knew then that the universe I had loved was truly gone.
For better or worse SWG has endured all these years and my time with it was truly enjoyable. I hope that those that made their home in the current universe will take with them as many great memories as some of us have of what once was. May the Force be with you.
I think what is going to be missed the most for me was the freedom to be or do almost anything in a virtual world. we see allot of themepark games. eveythings is in a nice timely order with a 100% predicted outcome to how it's going to end. you never knew with old SWG what you would be and there was no end to that unless they stopped adding upates or patches.
It truly was a game with the sky's the limit. i think those of us miss the fact that at some times a game comes along that should have shaped the genre with such pure innovation we wished all games would follow suit. thats not the case these days.
it's not that us SWG players have become "jaded" it's just that game devlopers don't take risk anymore. and that's sad really for people that love the escape of being totally free to be or do anything you like in a virtual world like we had in SWG.
Going back to Vanguard i just hope to God SOE do and EA as turn from zero to heroes,if they let Vanguard die i will never ever touch a Sony product again of any of their divisions as they are insidious and they treat customers with total disdain.Goodbye SWG u died a sad death a long time ago.
If only the Earthrise devs would read this, especially the following:
I remember building and decorating houses with furniture I and my friends had made; wearing clothes I had created; and laying out a city after spending weeks on the guild forums deciding exactly what it should look like and what amenities it should have. I remember trying to tame baby critters and being eaten by the irate mother, a hundred times over. I remember nonchalantly lounging around in NPC cities with my three awesome pets out for show, back before they took that ability out.
I remember staying up damn near all night with total strangers I’d just met at the Cantina in Bestine, Coronet or Theed, playing music and dancing silly dances and just chatting away. I remember crunching numbers on newly-spawned resources and touring as many planets as I had time for trying to track down the magic resource that would kill all previous resources when it came to making weapons, armor or harvesters. I remember spending way more time than I should in game when I was supposed to be working.
I remember the people I played with. Not just my known friends, but the community in general. Sure there was trash talk and the usual lout who just can’t shut up on a global channel, but for the most part people were pretty cool. I had customers, suppliers, friends and acquaintances, and when I got involved in PvP during my second stint I made quite a few honorable enemies too. Good times.
That's why, even though I never played SWG (it got borked before I had a PC good enough to run it, sadly), this article immediately inspires me to mutilate poor Elton John's Candle in the Wind (see below if you're really in the mood to be tortured), while Earthise makes me think of visiting a museum (I did think the graphics were lovely).
Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies
Though I never knew you at all
You had plenty of sand in your box,
While MMOs around you went themepark,
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into our brains
They set us on the treadmill
And we did quests until we went insane
[chorus, with profound apologies to Elton John]
And it seems to me your MMO had life,
Although you screwed it up in the end,
Never knowing who to listen to,
When the intellectual property rights kicked in,
And I would have liked to have known you
But my computer was a piece of shit,
Your candle burned out long before
I could afford one with enough RAM.
Missing out was tough
You were probably the best MMO I never played,
Sony created a superstar
Then put it in its grave,
Even when you died
Oh the players will never forget,
Although most of them on the forums say,
They'll also never forgive.
[repeat chorus and more profound apologies to Elton John]
Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies,
Though I never knew you at all
You had plenty of sand in that box,
While those around you had none at all,
Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies,
From the college student too broke,
To afford a new motherboard, processor, ram, harddrive, and case,
I'm sure I missed out on a great game,
too bad it ended long before,
though you're just now going to pull the plug.
[repeat chorus and yet more apologies]
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
I think it was the best MMORPG to date. I would still be playing if NGE never happened.
Without a doubt!
QFE.
I tried to go back about a year after the NGE, and even built a character I thought I could live with for a few more years... And I just ended up playing with myself. Typically that's easier to do without an MMO getting in the way, so I permanently gave up. I still rave about the game today and there has yet to be one that gets even close.
Yes, before it got fubar it was the best game ever. And still would be today if not for that stupidity. I know the quality of graphics may have improved but I still haven't seen a game with the kind of content, flexibility, or ability to pull you in and make you feel like what you were doing matter to a certain extent.
I lost my job just before JTL and had to let my sub go for a while. I got back in just as the damn cu patch came out. I closed my sub.. and have never been on any mmo for more then 2 months since. To this day if they would put out servers pre-cu I would pay my monthly sub to get in.
Excellent article! I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said. SWG was my first MMO as well. Jumped in Jan 04. Had it not been for the NGE I would still be gathering and selling resources with my CH/Scout. As someone said SWG wasn't really a game. It was a virtual world with a lot of stuff to do. And even logging in and doing nothing but goofing off with guildies in the local cantina was fun. Hanging out on the northern beaches of Naboo! Trekking across Dath, hunting parties with newbs on Endor to help them level. Gurk runs on Lok. As a Star Wars fan I absolutely loved just "exsisting" in the Star Wars galaxy. I didn't need, or even want to be some Hero all the time. But that was just me and I guess there was't enough of us. No other MMO has or will ever provide the players with the same freedom and depth of character creation that SWG had, a sad reality. I hope the player created alliterative can fill the void.
Between SWG and shoddy PS consoles, I've absolutely banned all Sony products from my home. ALL SONY PRODUCTS. That entire company is dirt and needs to go under or be bought out by someone more competent.
I probably still have more good memories of this game than any other. That is why it is hard not to spew pure venom at SOE, Smeg and those responsible for what they did to it.
But as the OP says, now is the time for good memories and those I'll always have. To anyone who knew the sociopathic yet polite yet strange BE who hopped around in the desert and left all her resources out in big organized patterns on the floor of her house I offer a big hug.
My trademark green lipstick retired long ago but I'll always remember what SWG was and how much fun I had there.
Very nice article. And I love all the comments people have been posting in reply to it.
No game will ever match up to SWG, I believe, but I hope I am wrong. Between the sandbox gameplay, social aspects, and the iconic IP, I cannot explain how much I enjoyed this game above all others.
I remember when SWG came out, I was so upset that I couldn't play because I was waiting for my copy to arrive by mail. Then the next day I received it but could not play because my dad had been home that day and had me working in the yard all day. He was rarely home, maybe once every week or two, and the problems in my family and the general difficulties of being a teen (age 16) certainly increased my enjoyment of the escapist second-life game that is SWG. But that night I logged in, and had my first experience with the game in a cantina where people were excitedly talking about their adventures so far in the game, and an armorsmith was collecting bones from people to create bone armor. I went out and killed some mobs, asking other players along the way which creatures they killed to get bones, and eventually I collected some bones and traded them to the armorsmith for some bone armor inside the cantina.
That will probably forever be in my mind of how a game should be- Not following idle quests, but seeing the environment around you created by the developers and other players and choosing your own path.
Obviously I have many more stories about SWG. Its amazing how many great moments I have had in it, more than every other game combined.
I quit shortly before the CU, but always planned to return soon. When news came out about the NGE and the CU I was devestated and never came back to the game (for more than 1 or 2 hours).
R.I.P. SWG!
We can only hope for something half as good as SWG was.
SWG also inspired my interest in game design (I still read Raph Kosters blog regularly) and development. I have since made several online games (small of course) and can't wait for the future when I have the time to make an RPG. Not that anything I could do alone could compare, but SWG has and always will be a strong inspiration for my interests.
SAN DIEGO, CA – September 26, 2011 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announces today that it is now OFFICIAL: the long awaited "Smuggler Revamp" will go live on all SWG servers on December 16, 2011...
I still remember back in '05 how they were asking on the forums for feedback on the upcoming Smuggler Revamp, literally just a couple of weeks before the NGE exploded on everyone, like they had no clue it was coming, when obviously they had to. I also remember thinking to myself at that time what a bunch of unscrupulous bastiges they were for keeping my Master Smuggler's hopes alive that the revamp (and possibly actual smuggling) was "coming soon"...
Yeah well I guess 6 years and all kinds of "Star Warsy" iconic-ness later the piper is finally getting paid.
Like so many others, SWG has been dead for me since November of 2005. I will always have my memories of fun times and frustrating bugs, solo-groups and doc buff lines at the Mining Outpost on Dantooine, Krayt dragon hunts and the speederbike race circuit, making the run on foot to Fort Tusken, and a cetain particular female Twi'lek dancer I used to stop in and visit with anytime I was in Moenia...but I digress.
I still have many friends from those days, and there are 10 individuals in particular that I met on Gorath that I still game with in different games now. We talk about the old times often, and I suppose that's one of the reasons that the "good" memories outweigh the "bad" for me.
Anyway, unless I'm reminded on 12/15/11 that those worlds have blinked out of existence, I probably won't remember on my own.
I laid my last flower on the grave of SWG a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Anyone and everyone can feel free to disagree with any or all of my opinions and observations whenever I rarely post them; it doesn't bother me one bit. Just know that I'll likely never respond to YOUR disagreement or personal attack, because I know better than to argue with idiots, especially upon internet Forums. See what I did there? -- Dinidain
Comments
Farewell SWG it was fun while it lasted.
Rabster Ganburst - Shadowfire
NGE or not this game still offers/offered things you don't see if any other game. Really sad to see this one go. I mean seriously, look at the MMO's out there right now, is the NGE really THAT bad? Sure it sucked at first but look at your options.
SWG Pre NGE was the best times I had in a MMO. RIP.
Still, people voted with their wallets, SWG just didn't bring in enough money for SOE to bother with a new (probably more expensive) license deal with Lucas art.
It is too bad but any other company would have closed it down years ago, it just didn't have enough players anymore.
The combat upgrade was a good move.
Star Wars is about pew pew and FPS style action combat not EQ cloned button mashing cooldowns. The combat system the upgraded SWG to was semi decent. Obvioulsy it was pretty flawed as you could shoot through walls and shit but it still a hell of a lot better than the original EQ in space one.
What was not good was the changing of the class system and the dumbing down of the game into a WOW clone complete with traits and all that shit. The original skill based system was fine as it was.
However what Sony really messed up on was right at the very beginning. There were 2 games in devlopment in the eary 2000's - SWG and PlanetSide. PlanetSide was the unknown variable with very little marketing behind it whilst SWG was the one that got all the media attention. However PlanetSide offered full FPS combat by was massively multiplayer (well 399 players on one map). So what Sony really missed out on was putting the combat system developed in PlanetSide into SWG. Imagine a game where you had all the depth of SWG with all the fun of the PlanetSide combat system (ie an FPS). That game would have been so good we might even have stopped the development of WOW as it would have been the ultimate mix. It would have seen the end of shitty EQ clones. It would have been a game I would still play today!
But people please get some perspective. The original SWG was good but certainly nothing new or spectacular. If it was your first MMO then you are just writing the same generic comments that people always write about thier first MMO. Lets not go over the top about SWG it was OK but not brilliant - it could have been but it was'nt.
However SWG certainly will always be better than the kiddy friendly new SWTOR that is coming out!
farewell Eclipse, Bloodfin
Survivor of the great MMORPG Famine of 2011
Good post! I could not have said this better myself.
If SWG has decent combat a la PlanetSide then it really would have been the best game ever. Imagine the PvP sceens in cities with real twitch based lazer fire, ducking behind walls, the wars that would have raged on all over the galaxy.
It would have been immence. Also when you wanted to take a break from the galactic war you could have gotten immersed in the quests, crafting, city building,etc. Oh what a missed opportunity SWG was.
Really strange that more people do not see this.
Territory control a la PlanetSide but with the richness of the SWG universe = best MMO ever.
"I remember trying to tame baby critters and being eaten by the irate mother, a hundred times over. I remember nonchalantly lounging around in NPC cities with my three awesome pets out for show, back before they took that ability out."
Heck yeah!
"I remember crunching numbers on newly-spawned resources and touring as many planets as I had time for trying to track down the magic resource that would kill all previous resources when it came to making weapons, armor or harvesters."
I actually had other folks find and collect resources (did a little myself) for my master weaponsmith, was easy to have a quality community with many parts to fill. I had my own tailor friend - I could go to him and get a sweet custom suit whenever I wanted and make my toon look awesome. Good times. Exploration and creature taming along with making super powerful sledges and pistols haven't been rivaled yet.
I don't think too many people would argue that the combat system was perfect, often far from it; likewise the game had far more bugs than it should have had and could have been much better than it was.
If peoples opinions of the game, irrespective of the above are positive then it's a bit rich to suggest that those comments are just generic because to some it was their first MMO. SWG had so much more to it than just the combat. I still maintain that the crafting system was the best and most involved I've seen in any MMO and the sandbox gave diversity to what you could do when you logged in to play however you wanted to.
If my opinion of the game is deemed 'generic' because I think that it had a great community of players that made the game better than what it actually was, then so be it. In that respect, SWG has not been beaten in all the MMO's i've played since. That opinion, which I suspect is shared by others, is purely my own and not just jumping on the sentimental bandwagon as this game reaches the end of its life.
Just because what others think doesn't match your own perspective on something doesn't mean their opinion is any less valuable.
So they are closing SWG in December 2011 - just before launch of SWTOR. Could we suppose that SOE just clearing server cluster, to launch a new game? I bet BioWare and LucasArts going to sell SWTOR to SOE (because last one have wonderful customer support and lots of experience in mmorpg), that's why they need servers. :-)
Farewell SWG, a fine game at one point but also perhaps (in my opinion) one of the most overrated and rose tinted games to ever have existed.
A gem of a game which turned into the joke of the genre (which to an extent also applies to it's community).
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
"...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."
I also have very fond memories of pre-cu SWG. As others have said the game was far from perfect and had a plethora of bugs (going the Smuggler route was painful), but it had such an awesome community and atmosphere that even those issues couldn't stop us from building something great (in my opinion). I too remember long nights at the cantina, drink in hand, relaxing after a hard scuffle while the band and dancers lifted my burdens and spirit. Simply being able to have that experience, the sheer fact that there were professions designed specifically for entertainment, was one of the things I loved about SWG (and also one of the things I love about LOTRO as well).
Not everyone wants to "pew pew" and the the variety of professions and the interdependency between them was an excellent feature. Crafting wasn't simply a side skill that you picked up, it was a complex mechanic that required dedication to finding the resources that would surely produce wares that were unequaled in all the galaxy. Those who chose to master their art were respected members of the community whose craftmanship was sought far and wide.
Musicians would lull you into contentment with their melodies and dancers would entrance you with their graceful movements. Every profession had value (although, as a smuggler, ours wasn't quite complete yet).
Sharing laughs over fine drink after a hunt, walking the bustling streets of Coronet, seeing the city that you and your friends built from nothing grow and thrive, taking your first starship out for her maiden voyage among the stars that you had gazed at so often. These and many other wonderful things are what made SWG great.
Opinions on the NGE will always vary and even I will admit that not all of the changes were completely horrible, but for me it was the aftermath that made me decide my time in that universe was at an end. After being away for a couple months I decided to give it a chance, and I was met at the Coronet starport with silence. There was not a soul in sight during what would normally be one of the starports busiest times. I made my way out to our city on the off chance that some of its residents might still be lingering; I found only desolation, a ghost town. As I made my way through various spots that used to flourish, I was met by the occasional traveler but most didn't even acknowledge my hails, and most of my destinations held the same emptiness. I knew then that the universe I had loved was truly gone.
For better or worse SWG has endured all these years and my time with it was truly enjoyable. I hope that those that made their home in the current universe will take with them as many great memories as some of us have of what once was. May the Force be with you.
Jaran Moss - Master Pistoleer / Master Smuggler
I think what is going to be missed the most for me was the freedom to be or do almost anything in a virtual world. we see allot of themepark games. eveythings is in a nice timely order with a 100% predicted outcome to how it's going to end. you never knew with old SWG what you would be and there was no end to that unless they stopped adding upates or patches.
It truly was a game with the sky's the limit. i think those of us miss the fact that at some times a game comes along that should have shaped the genre with such pure innovation we wished all games would follow suit. thats not the case these days.
it's not that us SWG players have become "jaded" it's just that game devlopers don't take risk anymore. and that's sad really for people that love the escape of being totally free to be or do anything you like in a virtual world like we had in SWG.
Going back to Vanguard i just hope to God SOE do and EA as turn from zero to heroes,if they let Vanguard die i will never ever touch a Sony product again of any of their divisions as they are insidious and they treat customers with total disdain.Goodbye SWG u died a sad death a long time ago.
If only the Earthrise devs would read this, especially the following:
I remember building and decorating houses with furniture I and my friends had made; wearing clothes I had created; and laying out a city after spending weeks on the guild forums deciding exactly what it should look like and what amenities it should have. I remember trying to tame baby critters and being eaten by the irate mother, a hundred times over. I remember nonchalantly lounging around in NPC cities with my three awesome pets out for show, back before they took that ability out.
I remember staying up damn near all night with total strangers I’d just met at the Cantina in Bestine, Coronet or Theed, playing music and dancing silly dances and just chatting away. I remember crunching numbers on newly-spawned resources and touring as many planets as I had time for trying to track down the magic resource that would kill all previous resources when it came to making weapons, armor or harvesters. I remember spending way more time than I should in game when I was supposed to be working.
I remember the people I played with. Not just my known friends, but the community in general. Sure there was trash talk and the usual lout who just can’t shut up on a global channel, but for the most part people were pretty cool. I had customers, suppliers, friends and acquaintances, and when I got involved in PvP during my second stint I made quite a few honorable enemies too. Good times.
That's why, even though I never played SWG (it got borked before I had a PC good enough to run it, sadly), this article immediately inspires me to mutilate poor Elton John's Candle in the Wind (see below if you're really in the mood to be tortured), while Earthise makes me think of visiting a museum (I did think the graphics were lovely).
Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies
Though I never knew you at all
You had plenty of sand in your box,
While MMOs around you went themepark,
They crawled out of the woodwork
And they whispered into our brains
They set us on the treadmill
And we did quests until we went insane
[chorus, with profound apologies to Elton John]
And it seems to me your MMO had life,
Although you screwed it up in the end,
Never knowing who to listen to,
When the intellectual property rights kicked in,
And I would have liked to have known you
But my computer was a piece of shit,
Your candle burned out long before
I could afford one with enough RAM.
Missing out was tough
You were probably the best MMO I never played,
Sony created a superstar
Then put it in its grave,
Even when you died
Oh the players will never forget,
Although most of them on the forums say,
They'll also never forgive.
[repeat chorus and more profound apologies to Elton John]
Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies,
Though I never knew you at all
You had plenty of sand in that box,
While those around you had none at all,
Goodbye Star Wars Galaxies,
From the college student too broke,
To afford a new motherboard, processor, ram, harddrive, and case,
I'm sure I missed out on a great game,
too bad it ended long before,
though you're just now going to pull the plug.
[repeat chorus and yet more apologies]
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
QFE.
I tried to go back about a year after the NGE, and even built a character I thought I could live with for a few more years... And I just ended up playing with myself. Typically that's easier to do without an MMO getting in the way, so I permanently gave up. I still rave about the game today and there has yet to be one that gets even close.
Yes, before it got fubar it was the best game ever. And still would be today if not for that stupidity. I know the quality of graphics may have improved but I still haven't seen a game with the kind of content, flexibility, or ability to pull you in and make you feel like what you were doing matter to a certain extent.
I lost my job just before JTL and had to let my sub go for a while. I got back in just as the damn cu patch came out. I closed my sub.. and have never been on any mmo for more then 2 months since. To this day if they would put out servers pre-cu I would pay my monthly sub to get in.
I quit before NGE or CU, it was in the end a low budget game..........
Between SWG and shoddy PS consoles, I've absolutely banned all Sony products from my home. ALL SONY PRODUCTS. That entire company is dirt and needs to go under or be bought out by someone more competent.
RIP
*salute to Ahazi*
*salute to all SWG-ers from the early days*
I probably still have more good memories of this game than any other. That is why it is hard not to spew pure venom at SOE, Smeg and those responsible for what they did to it.
But as the OP says, now is the time for good memories and those I'll always have. To anyone who knew the sociopathic yet polite yet strange BE who hopped around in the desert and left all her resources out in big organized patterns on the floor of her house I offer a big hug.
My trademark green lipstick retired long ago but I'll always remember what SWG was and how much fun I had there.
**Fairchild -- Ahazi**
Very nice article. And I love all the comments people have been posting in reply to it.
No game will ever match up to SWG, I believe, but I hope I am wrong. Between the sandbox gameplay, social aspects, and the iconic IP, I cannot explain how much I enjoyed this game above all others.
I remember when SWG came out, I was so upset that I couldn't play because I was waiting for my copy to arrive by mail. Then the next day I received it but could not play because my dad had been home that day and had me working in the yard all day. He was rarely home, maybe once every week or two, and the problems in my family and the general difficulties of being a teen (age 16) certainly increased my enjoyment of the escapist second-life game that is SWG. But that night I logged in, and had my first experience with the game in a cantina where people were excitedly talking about their adventures so far in the game, and an armorsmith was collecting bones from people to create bone armor. I went out and killed some mobs, asking other players along the way which creatures they killed to get bones, and eventually I collected some bones and traded them to the armorsmith for some bone armor inside the cantina.
That will probably forever be in my mind of how a game should be- Not following idle quests, but seeing the environment around you created by the developers and other players and choosing your own path.
Obviously I have many more stories about SWG. Its amazing how many great moments I have had in it, more than every other game combined.
I quit shortly before the CU, but always planned to return soon. When news came out about the NGE and the CU I was devestated and never came back to the game (for more than 1 or 2 hours).
R.I.P. SWG!
We can only hope for something half as good as SWG was.
SWG also inspired my interest in game design (I still read Raph Kosters blog regularly) and development. I have since made several online games (small of course) and can't wait for the future when I have the time to make an RPG. Not that anything I could do alone could compare, but SWG has and always will be a strong inspiration for my interests.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
BREAKING NEWS!!!
SAN DIEGO, CA – September 26, 2011 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) announces today that it is now OFFICIAL: the long awaited "Smuggler Revamp" will go live on all SWG servers on December 16, 2011...
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LOL, and not a moment too soon, eh?
I still remember back in '05 how they were asking on the forums for feedback on the upcoming Smuggler Revamp, literally just a couple of weeks before the NGE exploded on everyone, like they had no clue it was coming, when obviously they had to. I also remember thinking to myself at that time what a bunch of unscrupulous bastiges they were for keeping my Master Smuggler's hopes alive that the revamp (and possibly actual smuggling) was "coming soon"...
Yeah well I guess 6 years and all kinds of "Star Warsy" iconic-ness later the piper is finally getting paid.
Like so many others, SWG has been dead for me since November of 2005. I will always have my memories of fun times and frustrating bugs, solo-groups and doc buff lines at the Mining Outpost on Dantooine, Krayt dragon hunts and the speederbike race circuit, making the run on foot to Fort Tusken, and a cetain particular female Twi'lek dancer I used to stop in and visit with anytime I was in Moenia...but I digress.
I still have many friends from those days, and there are 10 individuals in particular that I met on Gorath that I still game with in different games now. We talk about the old times often, and I suppose that's one of the reasons that the "good" memories outweigh the "bad" for me.
Anyway, unless I'm reminded on 12/15/11 that those worlds have blinked out of existence, I probably won't remember on my own.
I laid my last flower on the grave of SWG a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Anyone and everyone can feel free to disagree with any or all of my opinions and observations whenever I rarely post them; it doesn't bother me one bit. Just know that I'll likely never respond to YOUR disagreement or personal attack, because I know better than to argue with idiots, especially upon internet Forums. See what I did there? -- Dinidain