It amazes me that people can still call this a good game, much less "Star Wars"
It all began with a game that released FAR too early. Key features were broken/missing, but it was Star Wars, so we played it. A completely and utterly bugged game, entire professions have begged to be fixed for more than two years. But, it was Star Wars, and so the fans played on.
Then Jedi hit, and it changed the game forever. The Developers had promised us a "unique" and "Magical" experience for discovering the path toward Jedi... imagine how dissapointed we were when we discovered all that was involved was mastering 3 COMPLETELY RANDOM professions. But to discover these professions, they first had to get a hold of a holocron, an item with such an incredibly low drop-rate, that entire servers crowded to the few spots where they were known to drop, in hopes of obtaining one. Cities emptied, the Galactic Civil War ground to a halt, and the players found themselves turning against one another in their attempt to become a mystical Jedi, cash in on the "gold rush", or simply have something to do, due to SWG's complete and utter lack of high-end content. Then, Masters of hybrid professions, players who had invested so much time, effort, and credits into their characters, activated their hard won holocron, and would see this text roll across their screen:
"A mysterious voice tells you, that you must master the IMAGE DESIGNER profession"
No joke. And you'd have to do this a total of THREE TIMES. Each time, it would be a random profession. Sometimes, it would be a profession the player had already mastered, but had given up to pursue the other random professions!. But after that, *POOF!*, you're force-sensitive! They later changed this, but it seems odd that they would put such an incredible amount of work into a class of character that was SUPPOSED to be less than 1% of the population.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, folks. This is when the Devs, simply put, lost their god-damned minds.
So, after instituting an "Alpha-class" that not only imbalanced the game, but also tore the community apart, they decided to bring out the "Combat Upgrade". They made quite a number of changes (Most of which, NO ONE had asked for ), and introduced EVEN MORE bugs. This CU was launched alongside the "Rage of the Wookies" expansion, which would have been nice, were it not for the planet being almost nothing but paths with invisible walls, uber-loot, and a hundred new quests (HALF of which were bugged all to hell, many of which STILL haven't been fixed.)
Throughout all of this, SOE flat-out lied to everyone, saying that we absolutely adored their changes, that the game was more popular than ever (While, in fact, server populations continued to dwindle), and that everything was just peachy. Only it wasn't. Not by a long shot.
But it was Star Wars...and so the fans played on, even if there were far fewer of them left.
Recently, they released the expansion, "The Trials of Obi-Wan". A little lacking, it featured one smaller planet, no space zone, some new treasure, and about 50 new mission, for $29.99. But here's the rub. THE-DAY-AFTER players could no longer get refunds for their purchase of the expansion, SOE announced that they would be introducing the "New Game Enhancements", a series of sweeping changes that fundamentally altered how the game is played, and that the "NGE" would go live in just 2 weeks. 2 weeks to "Beta test" these changes before they were forced out. 2 weeks to enjoy their expansion, how they play the game, and some of the treasure in the expansion that would only be good until their profession was deleted under the new system (Such as Creature handlers and bio-engineers).
Needless to say, the players were a bit peeved.
At first, SOE refused all refunds, but after the forums had to be locked down due to the protesting, they begrudginly allowed players to get their money back for their purchase of "Trials of Obi-Wan".
"But what about the NGE?", you ask. well, here's the breakdown:
All professions were either deleted, or combined into others, to reduce the total number to 9 "Iconic" professions, that being Bounty Hunter, Commando, Entertainer, Jedi (Yes, now they're playable from the get-go, starting out as "Force Sensitive", but they're no more powerful than other combatants), Medic, Officer, Smuggler, Spy and Trader.
Jedi are and melee fighters are at a SEVERE disadvantage under the new system, as they've tried to make a mmo/fps hybrid, although it seems to fail at both. If you've got a gun, you can just keep running. It's just that simple. And since they still can't nail that whole "Collisioning thing", blaster bolts go right through entire buildings to hit you. In fact, NPC's are currently able to shoot you from far outside their supposed range, and through anything. Hell, their blaster bolts even go around corners!
Everything is now about the loot, which the Dev's intitially stated would NEVER happen in SWG. They stated that crafters would always provide the best equipment. Unfortunately, the crafters of SWG have been continually getting the shaft for tha past years or so, and now with plans to bring SWG to consoles such as the X-Box 360 (Slated for release in 2006 according to Microsofts website.), it's obvious that Galaxies is no longer intended to be the "the thinking man's" game. "Phat lewt" is now the name of the game.
Above all else, the "NGE" is BROKEN AS HELL. No joke. It's as if the Dev's just don't care anymore. It's like they're actually TRYING to kill this game.
I'm sorry this has been so long. I havent slept yet, and in my sleep-deprived state, I've allowed myself to rant and rave like a scorned player does. So let me summarize:
-Star Wars Galaxies was one of the most ambitious MMO's ever made, created with some of the best minds in the industry, with all of the money at SOE's and Lucasarts' disposal, and built on one of the most lucrative and beloved licenses in histroy. By subscription numbers, it's a mediocre game at best.
-It was launched buggy, it has stayed buggy, and will probably die soon, STILL buggy.
-SOE and it's developers have flat-out lied to their customers time and time again, and show no signs of stopping now.
-The "New Game Enhancements" are broken, ridiculous to begin with, and represent the complete ineptitude of SOE, LucasArts, and the current Dev team. It is a slap in the face to the fans and gamers alike.
Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Move along.