Star Wars Galaxies: A Community Divided

I just wrote this, it is my first draft of an essay about my experience in Star Wars Galaxies. Tell me what you you think of it, and if you agree with me or not.

Star Wars Galaxies: A Community
Divided

            It has been
over three years since the release of the game Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. I received the game for my
fourteenth birthday, on July 23^rd. The game is set between episodes
four and five, the time of Imperial domination and an almost entire Jedi
elimination though the entire galaxy. At launch, there were six main
professions: artisan, brawler, scout, marksman, entertainer, and medic. There
were also eight species you could play: human, Twi’lek, Zabrak, Wookiee,
Trandoshan, Rodian, Mon Calamari, and Bothan. Ten planets: Tatooine, Naboo,
Corellia, Talus, Rori, Dantooine, Lok, Yavin 4, Endor, and Dathomir. I played
on Bloodfin, because back then is was the unofficial
east-coast PvP server.

            On that night,
I created a Zabrak and a Trandoshan, both marksmen. With my Zabrak, I
challenged a, “Regulator” imperial to a duel. He killed me in the darkness of
the Tatooine sky. I had a blast just walking from city to city, killing
whatever was in my way, mostly, and being generally lost. Eventually, I got
tired of being killed, so I created another character. This one was a
Trandoshan, because they looked tough. I was in Corellia with this one. Again,
I was being killed often outside the cities, so I gave up on fighting. I
deleted that character and made an artisan Mon Calamari, which was my main
character until I had quit. Her name was Loceedoma Nomerhino.

            At first, I
was very clueless on what to do. I dug up artisan resources easily, and built
stuff, but I didn’t know much more than that. Eventually, I did missions on the
artisan terminals, but between the resources and the ticket fairs, I wasn’t
making much money. As her, I traveled to many planets asking other people how
to play a better artisan. Loceedoma first started out on Corellia, but she went
to Naboo and Tatooine before getting some real advice.

            At this
point of the game, there were slight changes in the game. Combat balancing,
adding content to the game. Sony by now had admitted that they hadn’t made Jedi
when the game was first released. I remember the panel stories they had, and
what changed the story was who did more damage to the other side. The rebellion
usually won, but that content was kind of a lost cause and they threw that idea
away fast.

            Before Star
Wars Galaxies, I wasn’t that interested in Star Wars. By now, I was very
interested in Star Wars, and soon I got more games and movies. Back to the game
… there was an artisan that helped me understand self-extracting machines.
These were called small ore extractors.
You buy them with the credits you earned selling things off the galactic
bazaar. Surveying the land, I could gain percentages and take samples of the
resources on the planet. Each resource is different and has different qualities
to do different things proficiently.

            By now,
even me, a non-combat Mon Calamari noticed all the Imperial presence. Bloodfin
definitely had a distinct feel to it, which no other galaxy/server had.
Everybody was very competitive. Most were fighters, which made it so hard for
me to find help anywhere. Being a n00b, lots of times I just went ‘la-de-da’
and did my own thing. It really got me nowhere, but it was fun. I had visited every planet, and even just run on top of a
cliff to see a beautiful Tatooine sunset. This to me made Star Wars Galaxies
worth playing, it wasn’t just the content, but the freedom, and the way you
could go literally anywhere on ten vast planets.

            Back then,
I really didn’t care about resources and qualities. I bought a small house and
two small ore extractors, and plotted them near a river just north of Coronet,
the capital of Corellia. The extractors collected thousands of grind resources
I could then use to further my studies as an artisan. Grind resources are
resources that have no good attribute, and you use only for the creation of
materials to be destroyed again.  Being a
master artisan, and having the vehicle patch just being released, I could
create vehicles myself. What was funny was how people paid millions of credits
for the first vehicles, and by a day or two the prices dropped to
thirty-thousand credits. If I was tight on money, I would sell grind vehicles
for cheap.

            The more I
continued my path with the elite branches of artisan, the two I wanted,
weaponsmith and armorsmith, the more I got involved with personal affairs of
true soldiers in the battlefield. Which to me, was mostly Rebel. Disappointing,
it was. Most of them were disorganized, and while there might have been a lot
of Rebellion guilds, each one of them had few members. The Imperials had one
major guild, the Regulators, and sub-branches of guilds (practically)
controlled by them.

            Oh, the
times were a-changing. Quickly I got the title of novice Weaponsmith, but it was very easy to get compared to what
lied ahead. I tried to become part of the system by starting my own Rebellion
guild, in which I bought my own guild hall and had it placed in the wilderness
of Corellia, but I had very limited success. My goal was to reunite Rebellion
forces and fight against a common Imperial enemy known for cheating and
scamming, the Regulators. In the end, I found most people were already in a
guild.

            By now, I
was not only a master artisan by name, but by knowledge as well. I understood
resource qualities, how to improve just about anything with a little risk with
the larger crafting machines, it all came natural to me. I knew price indexes,
like good resources sell at 5-6 CPU and the prices dropped when more people
became artisan, but by part because of me, because I did sell good resources
cheaply. My prices for resources were: 3-4 CPU for the good stuff, and 1-2 CPU
for grind quality. It takes a little more while to find the stuff selling, but
it doesn’t cost any more credits to get ‘em. I had plenty of medium ore extractors
running ‘bout, running thousands of resources and with time, millions of
credits. I was a determined and happy artisan.

            But as
weaponsmith became harder and harder, combat grew more and more appealing to
me. Everybody was biased. The Rebellion called the Imperial tricks cheap and
demanded for rules of war, the Empire just thought the Rebellion were a bunch
of whining idiots. I decided to do a personal investigation. On the official
boards, I committed myself to becoming a news reporter. I’d report what was
happening in the battlefield, with no bias either way. Both sides invited me to
a battle … it was The Regulators vs. the LOCH.
The LOCH was barely noticed in the community,
a very small PvP orientated guild.

            I saw an
incredible battle. There was only one rule for both sides: do not use anyone
outside of your guild. The Regulators had their village to protect, and the LOCH had a stationary Rebel base with weak NPCs to
protect. The Regulators by themselves pushed LOCH and some other Rebels
‘helping them’ to their own base, killing everybody but the captain of LOCH, which ran away instead of fight inside the base. The
Regulators kept strength in the base, but LOCH’s
leader came back with such a force … he defeated all the Regulators inside the
Rebellion base and retook it. Time sped faster as they came closer and closer,
eventually invading the village. Now The Regulators had help from other
Imperial guilds, but it didn’t matter. The LOCH
had overtaken the entire village for a couple of hours, all the Imperials hid
in Enott’s huge house ‘cause they didn’t want to be killed … it was pathetic.

            Before and
after this, I learned more about The Regulators. Enott controlled the weapons
market single-handedly, by creating T-11 Rifles with stats I’ve never saw
before. Of course, they were really expensive, even to me. Like fifty million
credits! And his stock would constantly be sold out! Enott often bragged about
how many credits he had, but those credits only benefit himself, it had seem.
As bad as some people were in The Regulators, they denied doing illegal
activity. They were more organized, more fit-to-serve, they had the most
players, they had the most firepower, and they had it all there in that village
on Tatooine. I wanted to become part of them … they refused.

            At this
time, player cities were established, and soon became a vital part of the game.
Soon the cities could be established on the galactic map, and much of what was
rural areas sometimes companied by a few houses became strongholds complete with
city hall, cantina, medical center, and sometimes even a theater or two. This
did not matter much to The Regulators, they already had Enott’s Village, which acted almost exactly like a player city. The
closest thing I remember the Rebellion having was the KGB, the Knights of Glory
and Beer. The size of their city and Enott’s
Village was incomparable. However, KGB had the most success with scandals
and battles against the Regulators.

            Back to my
personal experience. Anger was surging though myself. I enlisted to become an
independent Imperial. Abandoning my artisan skills, I became a marksman. With
the money I gained from being an artisan, I bought armor, weapons, and Doctor
buffs to grind my way up master commando and master smuggler in the Tusken Fortress
on Tatooine.  I did quests from directly
the Emperor and Darth Vader himself. In most of my ‘friendly duels’, I would
kill my opponent, Rebel or Imperial. I didn’t give a shit, and it felt good
that way.

            More
content was being added, mainly, ‘instantized missions’. The first was the
Corellia Corvette. There are nine missions, three Imperial, three Neutral, and
three Rebel. Since I was an Imperial, I did the Imperial missions with other
Imperials. What would happen is: I would hang around the ‘Emperor’s Retreat’ on
Naboo to find a group that needed an extra strength so I could join in and be
transported to space to fight a group of rebels and droids. Success was rare,
and came only with experienced groups. Most of the time, I was backup, just
clearing up what needed to, to advance further in the ship we invaded.

            Two more of
these became available. The reward for the Corellian Corvette was a schematic
to make the fastest vehicle, at that time, in the game. Then there was Yavin
4’s Genocide Caves, which were very laggy because it
wasn’t instantized, and had powerful weapons and weapon upgrades. After that
was Endor’s Death Watch Bunker, it had the famous jetpack, and Mandalorian
armor. But these came later in the game. As well, the first expansion Jump to Lightspeed came out October 27,
2004…

            Sony had
admitted that even though they created Jedi by now, there was no one who became
one as of it. However, the first force-sensitive character was unlocked
November 7^th, 2003. As an, “X-Mas Gift” they gave everybody two free
Jedi holocrons, which you could use to learn what you needed to master to
become force-sensitive. See, the old Jedi system had it where you had to master
six professions to become Jedi, five of them could be identified with the Jedi
holocrons while the sixth was a guess. I mistakenly used my first, it told me I
had to master fencer to become a Jedi. Then I learned more about what it was
for, and how every character has different professions they must master to
become Jedi. I sold my second holocron, ‘cause I didn’t want to be a Jedi, in a
cantina.

            The easier
they made it to become a Jedi, the weaker they made it. The first Jedi I saw
was a dark Jedi in the Genocide caves; I gave him my red double-crystal for
free. He used it, and I was so proud of myself… However, by now, almost
everybody was a Jedi. This is when I had quit the game, but it wasn’t for long.
Loceedoma Nomerhino wasn’t deleted. I went back to my previous MMORPG, The Sims
Online, due to the overflow of Jedi which pissed me off ‘cause this was at the
time where there was supposed to be very few. But, I found out that The Sims
Online still sucked as it did ever, and even while I was playing The Sims
Online, I was still updated with everything that was going around Star Wars
Galaxies.

            The new
thing that they announced that drew me back to the game was the combat balance. This brought new hope
for Loceedoma Nomerhino, because both commandos and smugglers were nerfed
beyond comprehension and was very weak in PvP (although, they were very good
against NPCs). By now, The Regulators had left the game. There were two major
new guilds now. DREAD (Naboo
Imperials) and FIGHT (rebels). DREAD
was second to FIGHT usually. While DREAD was more organized, they drew in a lot
of criticism when their own leaders admitting to cheating and buying Jedi on
E-Bay to further their own cause. As a master commando and master smuggler, I
asked DREAD leaders if I could join their awesome guild. They refused me,
telling me that my template is suited towards PvE, which really pissed me off…

            The first
revampment of the game had four different names. Each month they created a new
name for it, because players started to bitch about it not being released.
First, it was the Combat Balance.
Then they said they were adding more into the game, and called it the Combat Repave. Another month with no
release and it was called the Combat Revamp.
By now, developers were releasing documents about what is expected to come.
Expectations were very high for this new system since then. The final name came
by as the Combat Upgrade, and was
released onto the Test
Center.

            Most people
on Test Center detested the new system, as
instead of balancing and adding more into combat, instead it simplified it, so
it was easier to modify. They lied to us; these weren’t the changes they said
they were going to make. And everything was changed! Everything that once
helped you were useless or near useless now, and doctors became a very
secondary role in combat as buffs were nerfed.

            The Combat Upgrade
was on main servers on April 27, 2005. CU changes include (but not limited to):
removal the normal three HAM bars with three attributes (how much, regeneration
rate, and how much resistance you had towards damage), to where only the health
bar could be damaged, the action bar was solely used for special attacks, and
the mind bar was solely used for healing. All the combat professions became
linear and equal to each other; no one was that unique anymore. They created a
new bracket in combat --- offensive, defensive, crowd control, and healing, and
attributed every profession in their new spectrum of combat. Crafting became
easier, so all crafters could now craft the exact same things, and there was a
sense of forced equality. While, most of these changes were bad, it did do some
positives. Armor sets became equal, so you could choose what kind of armor you
wanted to wear, instead of having to wear composite armor, but they also
categorized armor to protect melee/ranged differently and there were limits
‘cause different professions allowed you to wear different kinds of armor.
Another positive change was the original goal: combat balance. They indeed
balance combat, and being a master commando and master smuggler was quite a
good template now.

            A lot was
happening with my situation. To further the cause of the Imperials, I became a
Rebel, an Imperial spy and gathered intelligence to my Imperial officers. It
didn’t pay well, but I certainly had the feeling of involvement. However, my
identity was discovered, and the Imperials had abandoned me. With this, and
DREAD’s acceptance of cheating to further their cause, I decided to switch
again and become a real Rebel! The third era of guilds became FOAD (Rebels) and
AXIS (former DREAD members). I joined FOAD for real.

            They made a
poll asking players if they wanted to become a Jedi. Around a staggering 93%
said yes… So soon after the Combat Upgrade, they made drastic changes how to
become a Jedi. Already after they revamped Jedi the first time, they became
widespread as you couldn’t attack them freely anymore. Now they were making it
easier to become a Jedi, not requiring you to master professions to become one.
The new Jedi system took a different turn. To become, ‘force sensitive’ you had
to gain a certain amount of badges.

            I was
interested in Jedi by now, so I gained a lot of badges. Eventually, I was
greeted by the, ‘old man’ who gave me quests to complete in order to gain
access to the Village in Dathomir. I completed these quests, and was gained
access. There was ‘stages’ of the Village which I had to complete, and these
‘stages’ changed every couple of weeks. I believe there were four stages you
had to complete, each one you complete gives you a branch of, “force sensitive”
to unlock. Once you have mastered four branches of force sensitivity, which you
did by converting your regular experience to force sensitive experience, you
become a Jedi Padawan, I believe you get a robe and crystal from the old man
himself, but I never got this far. From there, you do tests to further your
ranking as a Jedi.

            Throughout
the game, I changed my combat specs. I was once actually a pikeman! However, I
never mastered it. The next major changed I did to my own template was to
change from a master smuggler/master commando to a master bounty hunter/master
commando. The Combat Upgrade loosed restrictions so for the first time, I could
become a master bounty hunter/master commando. But after I became a master
bounty hunter what with all the bugs in the bounty hunting missions I did, I
decided to change again to master
commando/master combat medic. However, after I got master combat medic, I stuck
with it. I usually won in duels with this template, as I could offensive
mind-draining powers like poison and disease to weaken my opponent.

            If you know
about Star Wars Galaxies, you are probably wondering why I haven’t mentioned
the next expansions yet. I’m getting to it! Okay, so the second expansion pack
that was released was called, “Rage of the Wookiees” which mimics the title of Episode
3, “Revenge of the Sith”, and was released at the same time the movie came out.
The thing is … while I do have Rage of the Wookiees, I never went to the new
planet included in the expansion. The planet isn’t free roaming like the other
planets, but I did experiment with the new cybernetic implants the game
features. The implants were cool and offer new abilities, but didn’t offer much
as of content and were a major disappointment, especially since those cost me a
lot of credits!

            The content
added between Rage of the Wookiees and
Trials of Obi-Won was … not really
that important. They balanced some professions, allowed multiple buffs with
more than one squad leader in the group, allowed you to, ‘pick up your house
directly and place it anywhere you wanted to’, instead of having to empty it to
relocate it. Bugs were also fixed. The promised, “smuggler’s revamp” never
happened as they said they were going to, which angered a lot of smugglers,
including me.

            Even before
Trials of Obi-Won was released, people
were calling it a, “Jedi expansion pack.” Of course, developers have all denied
it. However, truth be told, the quests in this expansion offer rewards such as
Jedi crystals, and such. I never bought this expansion pack. I do know it
allows you to visit Mustafar, the raging volcano planet. Trials of Obi-Won was
released on November 1^st, 2005, just before the second wave of
changes … the New Game Enhancements.

            I was
excited about the New Game Enhancements,
also known as the NGE. For the first
time, I register to play in the Test Server to try the NGE out about a week
before it was released. Well … feedback was limited. Mainly because most
players got stuck in the new tutorial before they could ever actually enter the
real game. I saw the gun’s stats when I first started, and I was like, “hey,
where are all the stats?!”, they eliminated most of the stats from the guns,
and simplified things even more. To go out of the first room you are in, you
have to shoot open a door. This was done differently in NGE than previously
done. Now, you had to aim your gun and shoot it, instead of pressing a button
and wait for stats to approve a hit or miss.

            After
leaving that room, right out there Han Solo and Chewbacca was telling me to
help them escape the Imperial ship. The final room had a bunch of Imperials.
I’m shooting at them, trying to figure out how to use specials with this new
system, and something happens that even I don’t think would happen. A
stormtrooper shoots at me, I move, and the laser actually moves in my direction to hit me. When all the stormtroopers are
dead, I try to enter the ship … and I was stuck, like everybody else. I try the
tutorial over and over again, just to have it repeat.

            Few days
later, they fix it, and finally I travel to another part of the tutorial, this
one on an asteroid. This place is public, so I see many others. As in,
everybody else was Jedi. Did I mention this was in the time where Jedi were
supposed to be wiped out? This new game was quest orientated, where doing
quests gives you weapons and other things. Added to the game were six main stat
modifiers. Strength, constitution, stamina, precision, agility, and luck. I
never left that tutorial, because the NGE was released like a week and a half
after it was on Test
Center, and I rather try
it out in the real game than in the tutorial.

            The NGE was
released on November 15^th, 2005. There were MAJOR changes done to
the game. From over thirty professions down to nine ‘iconic’ classes to play
as. This includes: bounty hunter, spy, smuggler, entertainer, trader, medic,
officer, commando, and Jedi. In the tutorial, I chose spy. With Loceedoma
Nomerhino, I chose commando. Now, Jedi is a starting class, and anyone can
wield a lightsaber. Jedi are as weak as everybody else now, nothing like what
we see the movies. Some professions were completely removed from the game, such
as creature handler, as you are not able to control pets now.

            Other
professions did not transition though the NGE very well, and had many things
removed. Traders are now forced to choose between four different branches of crafting,
instead of the ability to mix and match like they once did before.
Individuality, something that was once celebrated in Star Wars Galaxies, had
long gone vanished from the game completely, as everyone in the same class does
the exact same thing. The game stumped down its level to the competition, which
currently controls most of the MMORPG market, World of Warcraft. I have played
World of Warcraft, and have seen many similarities between the two games now.
The old system Star Wars Galaxies had was much better than World of Warcraft
will ever be. Much of what the game was removed without much thought, because
of WoW’s 6.5+ million subscribers.

            It was obvious upon playing the new NGE, that
it wasn’t finished. For the first time since the launch of the game, bugs and
glitches have become a major problem in the game. There was no collision
detection, so you could in theory shoot something and have the laser go though
the hill to hit your target. The enemies never missed, so lasers would actually
twist and turn to hit you, instead of go straight like in the movies. Few
quests were added, but only for lower level characters, and I wasn’t. The level
cap, which there wasn’t even levels until the Combat Upgrade, went from level
eighty to level ninety. However, at the beginning of the NGE where were only
level 90 creatures to fight on Mustafar, and not everybody had the expansion
pack…

            The game,
in turn of NGE, becomes a, ‘clicking fest’. Whoever can click their mouse the
fastest wins. No more real skill involved, no more skill tapes or modifiers,
just click. In the beginning of NGE,
there wasn’t even a real heavy weapon for commandoes to use! All melee
professions but Jedi removed entirely, intergraded into Jedi to use melee
weapons before you can use a lightsaber. Every profession has been streamlined
to the same experience in a different coat, as experience is the same,
abilities mimic each other, and professions such as, ‘smuggler’ have been reduced
to nothing but dirty fighting. In a sense, they can’t smuggle since the NGE.

            Even the
new user interface is large and clunky. Long gone are the days were you could
actually resize things, now you are
literally stuck with an interface that takes up half of your screen. Unlike
most people, I had real high hopes for the NGE. I played the new SWG with the
NGE for about an hour and quit. It was that bad. I couldn’t stand how buggy it
became. Since then, I have moved to World of Warcraft, which I now see NGE
copies from. WoW was too traditional for me, so I left it, and now I’m playing
City of Heroes/Villains.
However, that game plays very poorly on my system, especially Villains, so I
think I’m going to quit that, but I honestly don’t know where to move to in
this vast online gaming world.

            Player
reaction to the NGE is just as bad as mine, if not, worse. Most veterans hate
the new changes. Veterans said that the changes were to release the game for
the PS3. Players who took hours and hour of grinding to become a Jedi in the
past, now wasted that time for absolutely nothing. Only starting n00bs never
playing before like the game, and when they realize the quests end, they get
pissed and quit.

            Articles
upon articles have been created in protest of NGE in the official forums. Guess
what happens to anyone who disagrees with the new changes? They get banned from
the forums. Most people blame two people. SWG lead developer Julio Torres and
Sony Online Entertainment president John Smedley. Even photoshopped images were
created, showing John Smedley as a, ‘thief’. The reaction to the NGE was so
bad, that SOE had to refund players’ money for buying Trials of Obi-Won because
of so many complaints they received of the new system. Others have nicknamed
NGE, “CU 2”. An online petition had over 18K signatures protesting the NGE and
demanding a ‘rollback’ to, ‘pre-Combat Upgrade’. Subscriptions to the game have
never been lower. At its peak, pre-CU, was 300K. Now most of the galaxies are
empty, and it’s estimated that about 125-175K are still subscribed to the game
now.

            Still, with
all the negative impact, the developers have been consistent for the new
changes done to the game. Julio himself has said if you do not like the
changes, you don’t have to play the game. Smedley has stated in full support of
the NGE. Rumors that were spreading always got shot down the first glimpse they
got. These rumors include Bioware taking over Star Wars Galaxies as Bioware has
been in development with the creation of a new MMORPG studio in Austin, Texas.
Another rumor has spread about the game ‘rolling back’ and creating, ‘classic
servers’. The developers have shot down these rumors, saying that it will not
happen.

            A new
project of developers have tried to create their own pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies,
called the Star Wars Galaxies Emulator,
but all operations of it have been shut down before it could go anywhere by the
developers themselves. Rumors have it that the developers have said that they
were going to sue the people involved with the project if they don’t stop it,
even if it’s released for free to the public. All hope for it has been
dissolved…

            Even with
the low subscriptions, SOE still holds many developers changing the game,
instead of releasing new content. Many things that were, ‘pre-CU’ are coming
back to the game now. The NGE is becoming more and more as it was supposed to
be. People can now ‘respec’ their characters, meaning they can change their
characters’ class, for a fee. However, though there have been many changes to make
it feel a bit more like, ‘pre-CU’, other major changes have occurred, such as
the removal of armor certifications, and the removal of the, ‘mind’ bar. Now,
healing yourself is timed, like abilities in World of Warcraft.

            Publishes
have been renamed to, “Chapters”, and every publish/chapter has a ‘gift’ to the
players who still play the game. The
main goal from the beginning of the first CU was to balance the combat.
However, the combat has been less balanced than ever. Every publish/chapter
everybody shifts from one class to the next. NGE tried to make it easier to
balance combat, but it only made it worse by combining abilities and forcing it
upon players, you give some players more abilities than others and it becomes
more unbalanced again. Back in the old days, every box was categorized and
named; it was easy to see what you would gain in each one. Now it is primarily
level based, and is much harder to measure who has more than the other.

            The last
publish (I refuse to call them, ‘chapters’), publish 30: The Talus Incident
introduced many new features into the game. Despite the efforts the developers
are trying to remove content from the game, they have released, “the Battle
of Restuss”, a new constant ground warfare for control of the Rori city.
The game is starting to, ‘rollback’ in its own NGE environment, you could say.
Auto-aim targeting has been introduced in the game, which for many players
replaces the old system of aiming their weapons. They have also started to
create, ‘expertise’ branches within’ classes. Jedi and bounty hunter expertise
has been released so far, which for the first time since the NGE has been
released, makes all Jedi and bounty hunters different. Jedi have light and dark
trees, and bounty hunters have one long tree of skills. More ‘expertise’ trees
are expected…

            Many
players now have the rumor of Star Wars Galaxies’ demise. That it will just
lose enough players and the game will be cancelled before the NGE is actually
ever complete. Other players still believe that there will be a rollback of
servers, so they’ll be classic servers. Still, fans of the NGE say that the
game will continue with its current path. To me, it seems like the developers
have already started it’s progression to pre-CU. Expertise is a fancy word for
branch system like back in the old days, and already levels have been stripped
of what ultimately decides your power, like pre-CU.

            What, in
publish 31, will they ‘expertise’ the traders, and allow armorsmiths,
weaponsmiths, tailors, chefs, and the rest of them? Will they do a ‘basic
expertise’ and make weaker professions than Jedi, commando, and officer alike,
and call them, ‘brawler’, ‘marksman’, and ‘scout’? They might just be slipping
us a pre-CU version of SWG after all, they are just doing it in a way that
doesn’t hurt their reputation, and makes them look like the saviors of the
game. Destroy yourself just to rebuild it all over again. Good try, but no
cigar, developers … players want content,
not revamping things already created over
and over again.

            The PS3
version of Star Wars Galaxies has been cancelled. The latest rumors are that
the ‘classic’ servers will appear in, “Star
Wars Galaxies: Complete”, which is due a release later this year. The game
is said not to give new content, but to give new players the original game plus
every expansion pack. Skepticism clouds the minds of most players, as these rumors
have been spreading for awhile, with nothing to really hold to most of it. Most
players of SWG have become so distraught of SOE that they refuse to play any
game that controls it, including EverQuest 2 and Planetside.

            I call this
piece, “Star Wars Galaxies: A Community Divided”, because the game has always
been just that. Divided. No one can agree with each other. When the game first
released, it was the players bitching at the developers to fix the bugs in the
game. After those bugs were fixed, it was the players fighting themselves,
Imperials exploiting the game and Rebels trying to catch them in the act. The
bugs that the Imperials exploited might actually have done something positive with the game, however. It
shows who will do anything to win, and who plays fair. Isn’t that how it always
was in the movies? Anakin turned to the dark side because he didn’t care about others;
he wanted to do anything in order to save Padme from death.

            After the
CU, it became the players fighting the developers, and now that is more
apparent than ever after the NGE. The difference between the two is that one is
solely based in the game, and is supposed to happen, and one is created by
failures and fears of competition. Once, the game offered diversity. It offered
almost a, ‘second life’ (puning that MMORPG), a game in which players needed
each other. That is removed. Now, players get their best materials from quests,
they don’t need the help of others. I question whether the developers who
enacted the NGE are true capitalists or not, because the game has become more
and more communist than ever. Every smuggler is the same, every spy is the
same, every commando is the same, and now almost everybody is a Jedi in this
time period of their elimination … the game has become anything but Star Wars.

The End