Why Star Wars Galaxies Died

Star Wars Galaxies was one of the best MMOs ever made, but it died due to poor management decisions and, ironically, because of another Star Wars game. Did you ever play it?

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[robokast]

Did you ever play Star Wars Galaxies? What did you think of it? What was your favorite part?

[Surllio]

My childhood best friend had a memorial in the game. In the final days, people gathered at his memorial flag and chatted, did fireworks.

My best friend was Nathan Larkins, aka Moraj Markinnson. He got into the first beta test and actually had to use my computer for it. He was highly active in the forums but died in a car wreck shortly after the beta began. The developers, the forum community, and the beta testers wanted him remembered. This, the flag was created at the original beta spawn in point on Tatooine.

[iPoTeNcYy]

I had a mon calamari master doctor who traveled the galaxy trying to setup gathering machines to gather the best materials I could to buff players so they could do the hardest content or to help a newer player grind easier.
I literally spent no time fighting but was engaged in trade, shops etc. If I needed to setup a gathering machine near hostiles, I'd hire a commando or something to clear it out for me.

The game was so much fun where you actually felt like you were in a vibrant and breathing galaxy.

[kollinsendall]

The disconnect of the devs and higher ups is like a mirror image of Disney writers and higher ups with modern Star Wars. It’s insane!

[vidpew]

I was a day 1 player. One of the big things that upset a lot of people and started the decline was what happened with the release of the expansion Trials of Obi-Wan. From WIKI "One week after this release the entire character development process was changed in the New Game Enhancements (NGE). Major changes included the reduction and simplification of professions, simplification of gameplay mechanics, and Jedi becoming a starting profession. This led to a number of players demanding their money back for the expansion. After a week or two of protests Sony offered refunds to anyone who asked for it. Many player towns became ghost towns due to the reaction of long term players who decided to depart en masse."

[jackr]

There will never be a game with as great of a community as SWG, 30 years of playing games and I never once ever met a community quite like it. Best game in my entire life just based on how many lifetime friends I met. The player cities, player ship battles, cantinas, Restuss PVP nights, community parties with in game props and jukeboxes etc. just an absolutely incredible moment in history. For me this was my magnum opus and I’d give anything to go back and relive every moment, good or bad

Flurry Server Jadaan/Joraan/Joranus

[Collector_Phil]

‘Catering to the casual’…How this hasn’t aged well in Star Wars to this very day

[rochedl]

I played SWG back in Beta, in fact SWG motivated me to build my first computer, when the NGE released, I really did try to enjoy the game, but everything that made SWG fun for me was gone. Shortly after the launch of the NGE there was one post in the forums that EXPLODED into an all-out war between the players and the Devs, the Devs were mad that many players were not playing the quests that the devs works so hard on, and the players were hitting back on the removal of many of the class options, " Noone wants to be Uncle Owen, they want to be Luke or Han Solo" was the Dev mentality, there was a meme for a while that stated " I want to be uncle Owen!" this is where that came from, The post drew so much attention in one day that you would read one page and there was 10-15 more pages created. It got so heated that the President of SOE chimed in. at the point he joined the post the players were demanding more freedoms with house and city customizations, the Dev refused and went on a rant about how they are not going to allow weather control, not sure how the two related but I may have missed a page or two lol. It was at this point that the SOE president said his most infamous words, " If you don't like it vote with your feet". and that day thousands left. It was enough of a impact that national news picked up the story. The MMO that benefited the most from SWG collapse was not WOW but EVE Online, most of the SWG players, mainly the ones who loved crafting, went to EVE online, enough that the other players were calling them SWG refugees.

[WhyGodby]

i'll literally always click a star wars galaxies video

[danielnelson]

I played on the Sunrunner server from launch until the class system implementation. The game was sensational. So in depth. A living breathing sandbox full of people. Sprawling player cities. Completely player driven open world PVP, assault's on each other's player owned bases, pvp in space, everywhere. It was a blast. Battles that lasted for literal DAYS. Guilds had cities and places in vicinity of each other for defence purposes. I could honestly talk about how great the game WAS for hours. So many stories. So many friends. And so many enemies. Nothing has or probably ever will come close to what it felt like playing that game

[brutus]

Played from release until the servers shut down. No MMO has ever scratched the itch that SWG did. Ahazi gang

[daemonwulfe]

Adding to the nostalgia, I don't think any other game I've ever played matched the first year of SWG in terms of fun.

Best part was helping a crew of Imperials take out the first Padawan on our server. A trade deal was set up to lure the Padawan to a small, player made town on Tatooine. While the trade was being conducted in the cantina, we all gathered outside and set up a perimeter around the cantina. Everyone had their stormtrooper and AT-ST pets deployed. The moment we got close enough for our red dots to appear on the Padawan's mini-map, all hell broke loose. Our Teras Kasi fighters ran into the cantina first to engage the Padawan. The Padawan managed to escape the building only to be met with a small army of Imperials. The Padawan did not escape that town.

I tried one of the emulators a few years ago. Everything looked exactly as remembered, a universe frozen in time. There were a few player cities and the population was friendly, but the old feelings of excitement and adventure were gone. Cities no longer reverberated with merchants hawking wares and entertainers selling buffs. Long gone were the days of massive PvP battles that roamed across landscapes and faction cities. My guild was no longer around to form expeditions to the most dangerous regions of the game to support the crafters who produced our weapons, armor and equipment.

The experience did help me to appreciate what the game was like at it's height even more than before, and also helped me understand that those moments can't be replicated, allowing me to set aside the notion and begin exploring other gaming experiences. It was like visiting the grave of an old friend and finally finding the closure needed to move on.

[ssmlvsu]

I would LOVE a remaster of this game, a good idea, Also, the fact that Lucasfilm thought that for the game to be successful they'd need everyone to be a jedi is Absolutely RIDICULOUS

[tazman]

Worse is that SOE held a poll before they released NGE and the combat upgrade. Overwhelming playerbase said no. 85% said if you do this we will leave. They did it anyway they lost most of the player base and NEVER GOT IT BACK

[soapgaming]

My dad actually has a collectors edition of this game. Had an art book and everything.

[DT_Michael]

I am old enough to remember seeing the original Star Wars in theaters, all the way back in 1977. I started playing Star Wars Galaxies right after SOE released the 'New Game Experience' (NGE) and continued playing it all the way through till the night the servers shut down. I still remember sitting on the lawn in front of my house on Naboo, watching the clock tick down until my screen went blank.
I admit, Star Wars Galaxies spoiled me with regards to open sandbox MMO's after that. The game had so much freedom, even after the NGE, that other MMO's that followed, including Star Wars: The Old Republic couldn't compare in game play even though they were aesthetically much better. To this day, I have bounced through various other "open sandbox" MMO's, but none have ever captured my imagination like Star Wars Galaxies. The game was revolutionary for its time. I have tried a few of the emulators, but they simply don't have the sense of community that the original had.
I have often wondered what it would be like to see Star Wars Galaxies re-released while taking advantage of the technological advances in CGI and game design we currently enjoy, and I'll be honest. If Star Wars Galaxies was released today, with the same original game format, but updated graphics, I have no doubt it would be a smash hit!
Thank you for this little stroll down memory lane, I truly enjoyed it. I'm going to dig up some of the old screen shots of my custom X-Wing and reminisce now. Cheers!

[Sorain]

When you speak of SWG, you speak of two very different games. There is the game I played and enjoyed, the one that came out at launch. The one that I still miss and once tried to return to. Then there is the 'NGE'. That is not the same game, and it removed what drew me to the game, what kept me there while I was. I was fortunate to not be there to see SWG murdered and it's skin worn by a game that didn't even try to imitate the original.

Let me tell you what I did and loved doing, as my reasoning will tell itself. I made a Doctor/Dancer. This meant that I had essentially zero combat or crafting skills, not even truly meaningful gear really. So what was I doing? I healed peoples depleted stats. I could heal ALL of them, physical or mental, you could sit down by me and as I slowly fixed what ailed you, I would ask "How did you get this damage?" And so people would tell me their stories of adventure while I fixed them up. Basically no one had this build, because of that singular focus, but I loved doing it. It was a laid back, social experience with no time pressure and at that time I needed that in my life. (As I was sixteen at the time.) I tooled around Mos Eisley and hung out in one spot enough players would actually direct others to me like I was an NPC.

Funny enough, I had an extended conversation with a particularly beat up player once that consisted of musing on 'If I was a really good AI NPC, would this conversation still matter?' and the like.

But the memory that sticks with me the most is the one time I went out into Tatooine's wilds to help a group who'd decided to hunt Kryat Dragons. They'd gotten beaten to a pulp so badly they couldn't escape the area, and when I pointed out to their friend "You realize this will be an escort quest, right? I have no combat stats, abilities or gear." He just said "But your not an idiot, right?" So I followed along as he and a couple of others (who had been begged to help their friends by getting help.) escorted me through area's I knew nothing about, with them being paranoid I'd be aggroed so they blasted apart anything that came near. We had to wait and skirt things too dangerous to fight off for tense minutes sometimes. Until there, huddled at an edge of a cliff to avoid being aggroed, were a dozen people with more Wounds (stat damage) than I'd ever seen on anyone, each. So I listened as those too beat up to defend us if something noticed us there told me of the trainwreck that had ensued, while one by one I fixed them up. They'd been stranded out there so long most wanted to just log off, but when I asked them for an escort back to safety, they all decided "Better to log off in town anyway." Was a great time I still remember today.

A unique experience no other MMO would ever consider giving me.

[TheBovius]

One of the best experiences I had in a game. Even my nickname is still the one I created for my character. I learned English to almost fluent in two months because of it (no sarcasm). The community in it was top notch and it taught me empathy.

The space game was very cool and the art that people created inside their homes was just on another level. I still remember how some person created curtains from placing dozens of skirts.

I’m forever grateful to this game.

Just in case leaving here my SWG credentials: Bovius Lorgarn from sever Wanderhome

[crestcringlingcrungler]

"Jedi. Jedi killed Star Wars Galaxies. (and the combat update)"
-Saintmillion

[JohnSmith-wlts]

loved SWG, some of my best gaming memories come from it. Games like wow are still missing mechanics like player houses, guild raidable bases and automated mining, oh and player shops.
I remember fondly my guild building our own city, complete with barracks that other guilds would try to raid, it was great fun