Star Wars Galaxies

[FiveMileSmile]

Well, it seems I'm about to reverse a long-held personal reservation and actually buy and MMORPG; specifically SWG. I've got a bit more time on my hands at the moment than I usually have, and since I've finished just about every PC game I've had the inclination to play, something open ended seems to be the way to go.

However, before I take the plunge (a week on Thursday, incase you're interested), does anyone have any recent experience with this game? I know it was pretty horrible on launch, but all the recent reports I've read indicate its come along leaps and bounds, and is now both playable and enjoyable.

So, any mini-mutant testimonials?

- Rich

[Landatauron]

Well, I started playing at launch. Your right it was crap. So I quit two months later. Skip ahead a month. My friends tell me " Dude! You got to come back! There's mounts now, and people figured out how to be Jedi! Oh, and vehicles are coming soon". So I started my account up again.

Now apparently, my original Wookie Creature Handler had been deleted in the month since I canceled my account. So I started up a new Zabrak (Darth Maul) character. At first, everything seem'd alright. Lag was better, although that might have been because a lot of people jumped ship, everything seemed to run smoother. Then I started to actually play the game. The game is still one big grind. Go to the mission terminal, accept a mission, run out into the wild, kill whatever you need to, run back to get another mission. If your planning on going into one of the crafting jobs. It's even worse. You have no way to make money cause no one wants to by the low level crap you can make. With no merchants to sell to, and no players looking to buy. Your forced to either destroy the items or go into what SWG calls "practice" mode. Where you go through the same steps as in regular crafting. The combine still consumes resources, only you don't get an end product. Instead you get an extra 10% exp for the combine.

So, needless to say. I canceled my account.....again. That was about three weeks ago. That's the most recent personal experience. Now, I do have 2 friends who are still playing. One is a Master Weaponsmith, Master Smuggler, Master Pistoleer. All he does is log in, restock his weapon vendors. Then attempts to unlock his force-sensitive slot. My other friend is a Master Bounty Hunter, Master Pistoleer, and I think Smuggler. All he does is log in, hunt people down for money. Then attempts to unlock his force-sensitive slot.

You see, there's nothing left for them to do. They've already got into Jabba's Palace. They already met the Emperor. From what they tell me there just isn't any end game. Which wouldn't be quite so bad if it took longer than a month or two to get there.

So, my advice is.... wait. Wait til Ultima X: Odessy, World of Warcraft, even City of Heroes (which is the one I'm waiting on. Goes live 4/28). But I wouldn't get into SWG if I were you.

[FiveMileSmile]

Thanks Landatauron, useful stuff.

The reason I chose SWG over other existing MMO's is

a) I already know a large number of people playing, and will have a large group to join if I do start.

b) I'm not looking for something to invest my life into; instead, I want something I can pick up and put down at will; as a result, I can't see me grinding through the whole thing in a month or two as if I were playing it continuously.

As for the upcoming releases; first of all I'm always wary of buying MMOs on release because from my experience it amounts to pretty much paying to beta test the game for the company running it, so I was looking for something a little more established to go into.

I'm not really a big fan of fantasy games (I'd prefer something more sci-fi), so I'm not bothered about EQ, DAoC or AC as alternatives. And I've played and hated Anarchy Online (where my only other MMO experience comes from), so I'm running out of options pretty fast.

I've looked at City of Heroes; but from what I've heard on their message boards, the game hasn't really captures my interest yet. I'm kinda curious about Matrix:Online, but I get the terrible feeling that will suck hard as well.

Anyone have any thoughts?

- Rich

[Head Mutant]

Waiting for WoW here...

[PoolMan]

FiveMileSmile said:

b) I'm not looking for something to invest my life into; instead, I want something I can pick up and put down at will

See, I'm not hugely experienced at MMO's, but I thought the biggest problem with my desire from a gaming experience and what a MMO has to offer is that you CAN'T just play it in irregular bursts. If you don't work that treadmill, it doesn't matter how many friends you have online, they're not going to want to play with a level 1 pistoleer. They want to go do BIG things, not baby missions that won't get you killed.