Over the past few weeks, you may have noticed that I've been branching out to try MMOs that deviate from the standard MMORPG design, ranging from games that employ unique combat, to games that pretty much bend the genre in right angles. These days, however, I've also become interested in those MMORPGs that have undergone some extensive changes since their release (for better or for worse). In particular, one game that has always fascinated me is Star Wars Galaxies and how one of the most well known franchises in geek history could have teamed up with one of the most well known MMO studios around, but ultimately end up with an MMORPG with a rumoured active base of near 15,000 (while Smedley disagrees, he also says 'numbers are down,' but has not cited a proper subscriber base as of yet). Not only that, but Star Wars Galaxies is probably the only MMORPG to have ever undergone such radical changes (and create such an uproar) since its original inception in April 2002.

For those of you who weren't paying attention a few years ago, Star Wars Galaxies was a completely different game compared to what it is today. Originally, the game boasted a complex game system and steep learning curve, as well as giving players the opportunity to customize their characters via a plethora of non-exclusive career paths, rather than simple linear progression as a single 'class.' These days, however, since the implementation of their infamous 'Combat Upgrade' and 'New Game Enhancement' patches, SWG has quickly devolved into what it is today: a much easier game now typified by its nine exclusive classes (down from 24 non-exclusive career paths) and its new 'point-and-click' style of combat, reminiscent of games like Diablo 2. Perhaps the most interesting change of all was the addition of the Jedi starter class, where previously players had to master several professions and train themselves for months before they could even hope to become 'force sensitive' and begin training as a Jedi.

While it would seem that I'm wearing a pair of rose-coloured glasses when it comes to past iterations of this game, I'll point out that what I'm saying is not so much negative as it is factual. After the CU and NGE patches, SWG did become a simpler place, and while the previous incarnation may have had problems of its own, that still isn't stopping several intrepid communities from sorting through the coding to deliver pre-CU, pre-NGE SWG to the masses via private servers. Either way, it was in this newer, simpler, more 'WoW-like' version of Star Wars Galaxies that I found myself poking around.

Initially, players are told to choose between several iterations of aesthetically challenged Star Wars aliens (except Twi'lek! /blush), where they are then punted over to a large, friendly 9x9 grid of Star Wars classes to choose from, each of them headlined by a famous Star Wars character, like Boba Fett for Bounty Hunters, or Han Solo for the Smuggler class. While I assume that these classes were meant to quickly draw players into the Star Wars world via celebrity parallels, I couldn't help but feel that I was playing a game designed around a movie, rather than designed around an organic Star Wars universe. While the Jedi class (with a Luke Skywalker grinning out at me) did look interesting, I was definitely more interested in playing as a Bounty Hunter.

Upon entering the world of Star Wars, that feeling of celebrity pandering quickly came back as my Zabrakian found herself in a room on an Imperial Spaceship, awakened by... C-3PO! He ran me through my tutorial that ultimately saw me transported to a tutorial ship alongside Chewie, Han Solo and R2-D2. In a bigger effort to bludgeon me with recognizable Star Wars names, I quickly hooked up with Boba Fett on my tutorial planet, to learn the art of Bounty Hunting. As you can imagine, learning my profession quickly brought me into the combat of SWG.

First of all, I'd like to note that I actually didn't mind the combat too much, but it really did remind me of Diablo II in many, many ways. For a bounty hunter, you just have to hover your mouse over the opponent while holding down the left mouse button to fire. If you want, feel free to bind a skill to your right mouse button to use that skill, or, if you're lazy like me, press 1-2-3 in rapid succession so that you use all of your abilities whenever possible. Maybe later on in the game there will be some kind of reward for executing your skills intelligently, but it honestly felt as if whoever had re-designed SWG combat just wanted to make sure I knew how to kill things. And fast.

In fact, if you want to talk about speedy killing, then look no further than SWG. Never in all of my years have I been able to accidentally kill guys as I turn corners. Apparently by level 2, I was strong enough that when I rounded the corner while holding down my right mouse key (the key used to move the camera), I could accidentally mouse over a bad guy, trigger the skill I had bound to my right click button and instantly vaporize him in one shot. While it was kind of funny the first time, you can imagine just how 'difficult' my quests really were, when these guys represented the toughest things to fight in this area. Perhaps to rub salt into the wound, the SWG quest team decided to give quests where killing five of these constituted a legitimate quest. I quite literally walked over there, slowly panned my mouse left to right, and demolished more than enough for the quest.

While I'm eternally grateful that SWG didn't have too many of those 'kill x number of y' quests, they seem to have decided that making every other quest incredibly easy would get the same sort of mind-numbing result. In the end, I basically spent hours following a flashing blue line that would ultimately lead me from column of shining light to column of shining light (meant to indicate my quest's goal). At one point, I don't even recall what kind of quest I was doing - I merely hopped into a speeder and ran over the shiny points while going at the fastest speeds possible. I think I was performing recon.

Either way, while I toddled along at an alarmingly fast pace through quest after quest, reaping massive amounts of experience points, I realized that, after having fallen asleep at the desk for the third time today, I really wasn't enjoying myself. In fact, just like Diablo II, where I played it for a grand total of a week before I ruined it with those hero editors, I ultimately got very bored with Star Wars: Galaxies very quickly.
In the end, while it's obvious that Star Wars: Galaxies is a bit of an older MMORPG in comparison to today's standards, what really kind of irks me is the fact that someone really believes that this game, in its current incarnation, is a true representation of the 'Star Wars experience.' I'll be honest when I say that I'm not the world's #1 fan of all things LucasArts, but I certainly recall that 'Star Wars experience' while playing games like Knights of the Old Republic, or even to a lesser extent, Jedi Academy I and II. Unfortunately, all I really felt while playing SWG was as if I was being guided through a video game about Star Wars. Perhaps SOE had legitimate reasons for implementing these patches when they did, but I can't help but imagine what kind of potential this game would have had if they hadn't implemented these Combat Upgrades and New Game Enhancements, but had instead worked on developing more content for the dedicated fans. Either way, I guess we'll all be banking on Star Wars: The Old Republic to see if the 'Star Wars experience' is even remotely compatible with the MMORPG genre.

Chris "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
ZAM.com