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

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.

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.

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."

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

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!

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

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.

i'll literally always click a star wars galaxies video

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

I would LOVE a remaster of this game, suchhhhh 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

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.

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

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

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

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

“And when everyone’s super… no one will be” - Syndrome

Starsider represent!! I led the TRGA, The Revenant Guard of Alderaan. We were one of, or, the oldest and largest guilds on the server by the time it ended. It was one of my biggest accomplishments. I didn't have a job, my dad was dying of ALS, so this game and my guild helped me get through it. I loved it and I miss it very much.

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!

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

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

I like how you used Darth Maul igniting both ends of his lightsaber as a visual for "double edged sword"

I was in a bad accident when I was 12. I was basically confined to a wheelchair with minimal movement allowed for about 6 months while I recovered. The game came out right when I got out of the hospital. I was able to spend my days in Star Wars instead of a wheelchair and back brace. I was a trader and crafter mostly so I had a whole community of people I could talk to while I was out of school. I’m forever grateful and equally saddened by SWG. This game really might have saved my life. I wish that it didn’t go out the way that it did.

I started Galaxies after the NGE but it was still my first MMO, even before WoW. It will always be special to me. Some really awesome memories were made in that game.

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.

Smedley is a name that still echoes to all who played SWG, from that day on I really hate SOE, even now whatever they have I don't want to touch it.

There are great private servers. The game is still very much alive :)

I played the pre-NGE game for about 6 months, maybe a year into release. -I had no clue what I was doing -I died constantly -Could not figure out the skill system to save my life -Was constantly poor (save for when some cool player would tip me 20k for no reason) -Bought weapons I couldn't use Etc. etc. basically everything that a "game design expert" would refer to as an unsatisfying GaMePlAy LoOp or whatever. But it was the most fun i've ever had playing a game. It felt so real, exactly what you mention here with having to find chefs/dancers/medics to heal, and just talking to them. Teaming up with some decked out stormtrooper to go hunt something way out of my league and just asking him about the game, I felt like luke or frodo admiring people way above me while they showed me this vast expansive world. There was a feeling that they had really *earned* that power, not just by leveling up and grinding but by figuring out the world and living in it. I replayed a bit during the NGE period, and it was okay, but just not the same.

I loved the original Star Wars Galaxies so much. The first time I stepped into the world, I felt like I was really part of the Star Wars universe. I loved surveying for high-quality minerals to craft the finest wares, which I would then sell outside the busiest cantinas. It was such a unique experience, and no other game since has been able to give me the same feeling. The music as we traveled to different planets still gives me chills when I hear those same sounds today. It's a shame the game died the way it did. The emulator projects are great, but they really need thousands of active players to truly make it feel like the old days. I'm surprised that so many people my age have never heard of SWG, and it's not surprising at all that the younger generation doesn't know about it.

Was a kid when I played cause my mom had gotten into it. The community was amazing and no mmo will come close to those early years of swg. Shadowfire for life

My best MMO memories were playing SWG. Had so much fun with the 7th imp battalion on shadowfire. still remember most everyone's name even after all this time.

I can't describe how much I loved this game growing up, even despite its flaws post-CU & NGE. There was just nothing else quite like it, and the other people playing made it such a unique experience. Played up until its last day, and still dabble in the SWG Legends emu from time to time. Honestly probably my favorite game of all time.

SWG was my first MMO and set the bar for social interaction, dependency on the community, and interesting crafting that I have not found in any game since.

Don't forget SWGemu, the original emulator. There probably wouldn't be other servers if not for them.

Man I miss this game so much. It was one of the very first MMO's I ever played even before WoW and it holds a very special place in my heart. I still talk with the people I played this game with all those years ago. I came around right as the NGE dropped and continued to play long after and had a blast doing it. I loved the storyteller vendor and creating wonderful stories and events using them. I loved that the devs played with and created fun events for the community. I loved being able to choose how I took part and made my living in the galaxy whether it was to stay out of the way and do my thing or fight for either the Empire or the Rebel Alliance. The space aspect of the game was next level and one of the very best even today. By far second to none on that front and the char creator was amazing. I really miss this game and all its glory. I played on Bria and I was part of many fun guilds and even part of JEDl back in the day lol. I stayed on Bria all the way until the game died. The community was awesome and I'm glad to have had the chance to witness the greatest saga ever told in the star wars universe - mine. :P

I had a scout/artisan/rifleman, all master. Hunted and collected meat to sell to bioengineers, sold minerals and speeders in my vendor and it was fun :) Didn't care about pvp and always remained neutral. Didn't care about Jedihood either. I,ve had to work long hours so my playing time was short and precious. I loved being the Uncle Owen type. And PvP is the least fun activity with so many other activities to do. Even doing stuff in space or hanging out in the cantina, relaxing and healing BF after the fighting/hunting, was fun. That social aspect is gone though.

Adored SWG. I started off planning to be a smuggler, but honestly wound up just being a merchant/carrier. I remember when the holocrons started as a thing and nothing I was doing for fun was unlocking the force for me. I never really wanted to be a jedi, but like everyone else I kinda leaned into unlocking the force for myself because I thought a merchant with a lightsaber would be neat lol. Realized about 2 months later I wasn't enjoying it anymore and it was a job I hated going to. So I just stopped playing. I loved SWG because it was unique. When they watered it down...I didn't care anymore.

Have played since Pre-CU and often times I go into these videos expecting blatantly false and incorrect information on the downfall of this game, but this video was very to the point and correct about pretty much everything. NGE was the moment of obliteration for this game. Other KZfaqrs would like to play up the forums reactions to things happening ingame, like the negative drama taking place during Pre-CU. These people have no clue that the ingame forums for any MMO do not matter to the main playerbase whatsoever. I'm glad you didn't bother to bring them up as they did not represent anything to do with the game.

I can't remember exactly how it was, but I think I installed it, ran around for a few seconds, realized I have no idea what to do and deleted it immediately

Swtor and Swg are like two opposite ends of game design. One is a sandbox that requires you to mimic a theatre troupe to enjoy its barebones features, but you have no friends. The other is theme park where you have nothing to do when you’re not on a ride, and you’re getting desensitized to the adrenaline.

When I picked up the game it just right after the NGE started. I was fortunate to have found a rebel guild that were full of vet players, really enjoyed it a lot. I played till the game shut down, during my time I started as Jedi class, worked my way to Knight, then Master. I worked with a friend of mine who played the game pre ENG, he hated the fact that the game changed. I won't feel back about my time playing, but it would have been nice to have been apart of the original. Great vid, thanks for sharing.

I was playing this from the start. Even had the collectors edition that came with a small starting armor set. I stopped shortly after the Combat Evolved patch. I logged in to find that hours and hours of grinding were reduced to garbage. Admittedly I was on the bad side of the conversions, some made out like bandits though. So I rerolled to a commando build and gave it a good attempt, but the magic was gone. Needed buffs, over half the doctors were gone. Needed to remove the fatigue (the black bar) good luck finding a dancer. So many player cities just disappeared. It was damn near perfect right before CE

I was in the beta. The game was.... magical. Even without the starships or the speeder bikes. In fact, i'd say the introduction of the speeders kinda killed a vital aspect of the community. In the early days, players moved from city to city in caravans. The best caravan was the one that traveled between Bestine and Anchorhead, often the Rebels or the Empierals would ambush each other and suddenly you'd find yourself in the midst of a firefight. Back then seeing a battle of laser guns at night was just amazing. The caravan also made Camping useful, after a battle the camps would go up and the Healers and Entertainers would get to work. All that died when vehicles entered the game, now you could just hop on a speederbike and get to where you're going in around 5 minutes. It totally killed the gameplay that had developed in their absence. Edit: oh yeah... i ended up quitting after the NGE. About 4 days before the "Surprise!!!" update that killed the game, i had bought perhaps the best weapon ever crafted. It was a Geonosian Blaster crafted with the best mats by the best crafter. I was 2-shotting Jedi it was that insane. Of course, a gun like that isn't free... i spent everything i had to buy it. Years worth of accumulated wealth, gone in an instant... but it was worth it. Like i said, that gun was absolutely insane. ....Then the NGE dropped. My little Geoblaster which i spent everything to get... was now worthless trash. It was so trash you could loot better off a lvl 5 npc. On top of that totally demoralizing event, was the entire game going to sh!t as well. Two weeks after the NGE dropped, i cancelled my sub.

Played for a long time, specialized in armor making. Loved it and it really engendered a community to get ahead in the game as to craft high end, you needed high end materials and thus you'd end up with a crew of suppliers who'd bring you materials to craft with in exchange for discounts on equipment that let them do their end of things. Truly taught alot of young players how an economy works. I also have yet to find another game that had such a bevvy of in game emotes and features that served no point aside from make things fun and interesting. Safe Haven of Corbantis - Kazianna Revanni

This game died because the video game industry was starting to ramp up their trend of false marketing in 2010. The Old Republic was not what it was being pitched as to the public, the developers and lucasarts knew this presumably, so they got rid of Star Wars Galaxies the moment the internet started to compare the two games close to TOR’s launch. They even made a statement saying it didn’t want people lingering on Galaxies when everyone could be enjoying their new title. They just wanted to force the player base to their new game that was awful and soulless at launch. Which they knew was going to be the case, they didn’t want the launch to flop. The end of this game had nothing to do with the rocky launch and big updates of the title.

I played and loved this game. The JTL was the most awesome thing I have ever seen. I often spent months in deep space destroying all things Imperial looting ship parts for reverse engineering. I was in the bloodfin server. Rhiptide Vargus was my toon. There was a huge community in bloodfin. I never felt the sense of community in any other game befor or since. I wish someone would reboot this game in some official capacity. Technology today should make a sandbox like this easier than it was back in the day. there is already a fan base that couldn't resist playing it if it existed.

I started playing this game a couple of months before the NGE. What excited me about the game was the complex skill trees and free form progression paths you could forge yourself. What kept me playing was the community. I had found a group who had a settlement and started becoming a member of that community. The shops, the professions, the way in which the interactions took place and people formed a genuine community to help each other progress in the game were like nothing any game has ever managed to create since. The shock of this community being violently torn apart by the decisions made by SOE and LucasArts was significant. I went into the changes with an open mind as I didn't have a ton of time into the game and didn't think they would be so drastic as to destroy it. I was so wrong. The day I logged in after the NGE was one of the worst of my gaming experiences ever. Everything I had worked hard to gather or build was useless. All my skill progression - gone. In it's place was a brief class selection and linear skill progression wheel. I tried the Jedi and the first skill power was literally Sith lightning. I mean, you took the most iconic evil Force power and granted it to Padawans... Aside from the multitude of bugs, the simplistic classes, and the betrayal of Star Wars lore; I watched my community evaporate. I actually was upset when I logged off for the last time. Since then I've looked for a game to match that sense of community, but nothing has ever really compared.

It was a great game for it's time. I very much enjoyed being a creature resource gatherer for hire as a MRanger/MSwordsman - I had contacts in the chef and armourer professions that would regularly hire me to hunt specific creatures that had specific resources that given week, be it milk, meat or hide. This made me a surprisingly large amount of credits and let me tip my favorite dancers accordingly. It's surprising to me that no MMOG since then has tried to build a similar crafting/resource gathering system, or systems based more on XP rather than straight up levels. But I suppose that's the WoW curse.

I'll never forget when they did all this.. I was so close to being a Jedi. I was a Combat Medic and a Rifleman. I had to do an externship for my school at the time. Was gone for a little over 3 months. Came back, saw there was an update. And the next thing I know, the game is asking to pick a class! I stopped playing. Got into "City of Heros/Villains". Cool video Dude! Good job. ❤

The fact that they added an entire ship flying portion of the game was essentially like they developed an entire second game within the game. The next star wars MMO when they implemented player ship gameplay was only able to have ship gameplay be on rails. That says a lot about how much they cared, before everything fell apart with the release of WOW and the NGE.

One of the overlooked things that the CU did was screwed over entertainers. I was a dancer and loved just hanging around in the cantina putting on routines with my fellow dancers, when the CU came in Cantinas died and so did entertainers.

I wish more MMO did that same thing. Secret stuff that requires you to play the game and it was random for every player.

Every time I think of this game it is such a bittersweet feeling. Such an amazing way to explore the universe. Not only be your own character, but the closest it ever felt to actually living in the Star Wars universe. Great experiences, great friends, and so many good memories. Really miss this game and I always wonder what it could have been if it just stuck to its guns and built on the unique foundation it had.

I discovered the game after Lightspeed when there was only 12 servers and had a jedi and trooper characters that I made as brothers separated in their teens by the rise of the empire and end up on opposite sides of the Rebellion but I would have much rather have had a trooper that awakens to the force and ends up being a dual wielding Jedi in black Phase 2 clone trooper armor

The single most meaningful heartbreak of my gaming experience. I still haven't recovered from this and I dont think I ever will.

I played a Bounty Hunter at launch until NGE. I used to hunt Jedi and it was always fun, and a nail biter. I remember rolling up on one that was standing in the middle of nowhere with a group of 4-5 people. None of them were talking or moving, and after a minute of watching, I went for the Jedi Kill. I was able to kill the Jedi before they could react, and that's when the group became active. I had planned for it and hopped on my speeder bike and got out of there. On my escape, I received a DM from one of them. "You asshole. You just ruined a guild wedding." I laughed to myself and replied, "Just business". I received a few more messages amounting to watch your back. During all this, I was give my guild a play by play of the situation. The GM was on and was loving it. He asked the names of people, and their guild. Then reached out to them and started a full on guild war. A year or two after, I was telling a new co-worker about the experience, and they laughed asking "That was you?". Apparently, they had read a forum post where one of the people was complaining about a dick bounty hunter. That gave me a little bit of an ego for awhile, haha. Its an MMO memory I cherish, and I've only ever experienced anything similar in UO.

Star Wars Galaxies: Legends is how the game was during the final years before shutdown during the NGE era. Although supported with new and additional content by supportive devs. It's also known for having the healthiest playerbase with around 800-1K active players, and peaking around 1.9k active at one time.

Ah, yes, I remember it now with clarity that surprises me even after all these years. It was late September '03 when Trek and I set foot on the desolate lands of Lok, our hearts filled with the thrill of exploration. We ran tirelessly, it seemed, until the vast expanse of the map finally yielded to our determination. Nym's Fortress on Lok stands out in my memory as a place where we paused during our journey-a fortress of intrigue and danger, where every corner held the promise of discovery and peril. Leaving Lok, its orange wastelands etched into my mind, I found myself on Naboo. It was there, if memory serves me right, that I achieved a significant level milestone. For hours, I perched above a cave, engaged in a relentless battle against the formidable Kungas, each victory bringing me closer to mastery. The encounter with the Jedi on Tatooine remains one of the defining moments of my virtual adventures. It was a busy Saturday afternoon outside Ancorhead when I spotted her-the lone Jedi, a beacon of mystique and power amidst the throng of players. In those early days, she might have been only the second Jedi, if not the first, encountered on our server (Bria), a rare sight that sparked both admiration and curiosity. But as fate would have it, the dreaded lag, an inevitable companion in our digital escapades, soon disrupted the bustling scene. It was during one such moment that my imagination took flight, inspiring my Bounty Hunter to embark on a quest for the elusive Hermit-a journey filled with anticipation and the thrill of the hunt. Despite my efforts, the Hermit remained elusive, a mystery waiting to be unraveled another day....

This was my absolute favorite game! The non-combat roles were the best. I was a Master Doctor which meant that I was the class who could remove perma-debuffs that were put on players by certain effects or death. I had to operate out of a medical center for the highest effect, so I'd spend my days hanging out, hearing adventuring stories, and healing people for tips, gear, and resources. Then they changed the game completely and the non-combat roles became less important, so I had to take up a fighting skill. I miss those early days

The NGE was the kill shot. The devs, led by Julio Torres, knowingly made drastic changes in order to copy WoW. What happened was disaster. Rage of the Wookies changed the game from a free-roam open world to a path based level design. It killed the the exploration aspects and the bugs were horrible. I fell through the map too many times and needed a dev to help relocate me. The change in the combat system caused unimaginable lag. Any time you would get more than 16 people in the same area, things would slow up drastically. Faction battles were awful. The ridiculous amount of faction buffs was idiotic. Some people would have rows and rows of buffs that tipped combat in their favor. SOE were a bunch of fools for allowing this. Do not even get me started about what they did to professions. They went from something dynamic to something that was stupidly linear.

I miss this game so much. I wish it would still be possible to play it.

On day one When you first installed the game it said "Own and fly a Star ship." Which was a lie. The Jump to light speed that added ships and ship combat was a DLC they sold to players years after the game started. If you did this now days they would be going to court.

I enjoyed my time with it for a few months and I'd even started some of the jedi steps with some tips from guildmates. I don't think I was truly ready for the mmo grind at that point, as that would come with WoW. Still got my old boxed game to this day

I loved alot of things about SWG pre NGE. Like the skill systems, the non combat classes and the fact you couldn't understand a Wookie until someone taught you the skill. It promoted interactions with other player outside of questing. What i hated was the balance. I started a Rebel Sharpshooter, by the end i was an Imperial Commando sporting an AT-ST for tanking and making a million an hour farming Dathomir and Endor.

Thank you for the video! I started playing Star Wars Galaxies back in 2003 (Corbantis server). Met a lot of great people in the game. Ended up starting an Imperial guild/alliance with a great group of players. We actually had a couple of in person meets in California and Nevada. I played daily (a few days after it officially opened) until the very last day. The CSR's from SOE were very good to deal with (I met a CSR in-game one day. She asked me questions, what I liked about the game, what I didn't like about the game and also asked for suggestions to make the game better. One thing I suggested was to hold more live events. She and another CSR would always keep in contact and I would help organize some of the events with them. We ended up having some of the largest live events in the game). The game had great potential and was very fun. We played through all the updates/upgrades and downgrades. We still managed to have fun. I stayed in game until I lost connection and the last servers went down. It was very sad. Back in 2021, I started thinking of the game and randomly typed it into Google. I ended up coming across a page about Star Wars Galaxies Legends. One thing lead to another, I watched a few KZfaq videos and 20-30 minutes later I was playing Star Wars Galaxies Legends. I'm really enjoying the game and the Legends server has added new content and they are adding more in the future. If anyone wants to play again, install the game and the Legends launcher. I'm sure you will like it!

The ‘Combat upgrade’ destroyed it, period. Sony wanted it to be more like Wow. Jedi and player cities didn’t help either.

I loved this game. The community was unmatched. At launch there was nothing to do so you had to use the community to make your own fun. I miss it. (1 hour of EMU and i dont miss the death debuffs)

This was my first mmo and I had no idea what to do. I met a random player and joined their guild and fell in love with the micro-community I’d found. I had some of the most enjoyable times playing a multiplayer games ever. I regret the way I didn’t make more of an effort to keep in touch with them. Many left ‘temporarily’ for a ‘break’ but never came back. I’m not sure the gaming community is quite the same these days

I tried star wars galaxies legends a few months ago and deleted it after 20 or so hours. The amount of jank in the game is unreal, it hasn't aged well at all. There is absolutely no polish whatsoever, especially when it comes to animations. For example, i unalived a hostile npc and his body just appears on the ground, there is no death animation or anything. I have been spoiled by newer games, if you love SWG and can endure all the jank, all the power to you man, have fun.

Was a day one player. The game died when they added Jedi and revamped skills. I miss this beautiful game as it was in the beginning.

I played Day One. I was a Master Bounty Hunter and quit after they updated the classes and added Jedi. I did play during the Holocron days. I had a good spot where i could solo the elites for holocron drops. Had a lot of fun playing the game. I started a Bounty Hunter Guild that had both Imps and Rebels. We changed factions to fight for certain groups and guilds for credits.

I was a weaponsmith/armorsmith on Bloodfin, and one thing I always see left out of retrospective videos on this is the effect on crafters. With the Combat Downgrade, every single weapon--even crates FULL of high-end weapons--were rendered useless overnight. They all reset to base stats...all that work experimenting to get the perfect blueprint was gone instantly. But that wasn't the worst part. All your raw materials. Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of units of Diatium copper, Link-steel aluminum, fiberplast, Kammris iron...all useless. Basically everything we had worked to build...gone. One crafter I know--JUST ONE--continued to play after this. Dude was an architect, so mat quality didn't matter nearly as much. I left and never looked back. I do miss my friend, Naga-t, though.

This game is still alive and doing very well thanks to the Legends server. It's heartbreaking to see any truly amazing MMO finally be shut down, but thankfully we live in a time where that doesn't necessarily have to mean the end of things.

I played it back when it first came out. It was amazing back then. What killed it IMO is probably the same thing everyone else has stated, but it was the simplification of the game, and adding in a path to become Force Sensitive then Jedi/Sith. Originally players were just supposed to be normal people in the star wars universe and that's what made it special, because they didn't just make it focused on a bunch of Jedi or Sith like every other game/movie out there. I'd love to see another Star Wars Sandbox MMO like Galaxies. I'd like to see it start prior to Episode 1, then gradually move through the events of the movies, and we as players can choose to support either side during those events if we choose. Overall I'd want it to remain a sandbox though with the different planets being a big wide open zone.

The history of this MMO seems to reflect what Disney has done to Star Wars for a lot of us GenX fans. Admittedly, I got into WoW and played that a LOT back in the day. LucasArts should have stayed on course gently improving the game. The joy of the original game was no clear path to becoming a Jedi. That fit with the mystic of the force in the original 3 movies. However, as will nearly all Companies. The Need to Make Profit overshadows Creativity and Originality.

I still remember logging in one day and seeing a "CHARACTER ROLE SELECT SCREEN" with the first role as Jedi lol

I got into Galaxies one day before it went live. It was DOA out of the gate because unlike the later SWTOR, Galaxies had zero PVE content, foolishly assuming everyone would want the PvP based "galactic civil war" idea. That said, I DID have a blast playing a Master Musician buffing other players and chatting.

As someone who played from launch to shutdown, one of the biggest things that made the game successful was the codependency it created. Initially only one character per server (unless jedi unlocked). You had to interact with others to accomplish certain goals. E.g. hiring a ranger to track kimogilas or krayt dragons (before the krayt boom), hiring a tailor to get your exact look down or for a specific occasion. Needing buffs from a doctor, musician, and dancer. The list goes on. We all needed each other. That all went away when we were allowed multiple characters. More people became self-sufficient. The CU killed it for some. Early NGE took more. Late NGE was fun, but the damage was done. Also, the fact that people who worked for jedi got the shaft. SWG was an exceptional game that fell victim to a series of bad developmental changes.

It can't be understated exactly how bad SOE was at handling their MMOs in the early 00's. They created EQ2 instead of focusing on original EQ, then they tried to change their existing MMOs to the product that was already beating them. They wore down their talent, shuffled them across too many projects, and ultimately, dug their own grave. It's why SOE no longer exists -- Sony eventually realized they did not have the desire or knowledge on how to manage such a company, which is why it was sold off. SOE wouldn't have ever even been a thing Sony management had their way and shut down the original Everquest development as they had tried to a number of times. And of course, by the time Sony management had taken over the overwhelming popular Everquest project, they in very short order completely killed it. To anyone who wasn't around to experience MMOs in the early 00's, all I can say was it truly was the Wild West of not only MMOs but also the internet in general. It was a very different time, and many of us looking back do so with rose-tinted glasses because it truly, truly was a community unlike and dissimilar to what we see today. You would get into a game like Everquest or SWG and spend hours just talking to people, interacting with them, exploring (which is just walking around and looking at things). You would kill the odd creature every now and then, but grinding gear and levels just wasn't a focus for a lot of people. So when you saw that guy in a full stormtrooper set, damn that was so cool. When you saw a bounty hunter, you instantly had a distrust for them, even if you weren't on a PvP server. Instead of fostering these types of interactions, games and the people who played them, shifted to grinding levels and gear and every player was given easy access to everything they could want if they were willing to keep their monthly sub going long enough for them to grind it out.

I remember when the first Jedi showed up. I was at peak happiness as a kid when this game launched.

I seriously miss this game. My handle here was started when I was playing it. It was seriously an RPer's paradise in how it began, and even the CU wasn't the stake in the heart that it had the reputation of. The NGE was just too much. Luckily, I've stayed friends with the folks I gamed with, and we've moved from guild to guild across multiple games ever since.

I was a launch SWG player. The problem was they never actually created content like they promised. It was an amazing shell and sandbox with lots of opportunity, and they never did anything (good) with it. They panicked and got desperate and did the stupid Holocron/Jedi thing (which NOT having Jedi was crucial to the game in the first place), and then there was a carrot on a stick keeping some people playing. Other people (like myself) had their interest wane. I bought Jump to Lightspeed, and it wasn't enough to keep me. Enter WoW, goodbye SWG.

I miss sitting in a spaceport waiting for the planetary shuttle to arrive. Yeah, I was there on day one.

Absolutely loved SWG in the beginning. Bloodfin for life!! I played through the beta and up until around the end and nothing beats the beginning even with huge flaws. The leveling and skill tree system was awesome, being able to choose Master Pistoleer and go up a couple different branches in Pikeman, Media, and Bounty Hunter was awesome and added so much to customization. The crafting system was so bad ass too, I loved creating and setting up a huge store full of items to sell. They really messed up from the beginning though which you highlighted perfectly. The lack of Star Wars elements in a Star Wars game was a huge let down. You knew you were in the Star Wars world, but barely. Most of the settings included Star Wars characters but the B team for sure. Barely anything you knew from the films that would have added so much. They really missed the mark with armor too but not giving us recognizable pieces to choose from and wear and even when they added it, it sucked compared to composite armor which everyone defaulted too. Just thousands of people walking around in the same composite armor that you could eventually change the color on. LOL The CU really killed some of the experience, space expansion killed the communities that would hang out around the space ports and once the Holocron told me I had to grind out Master Entertainer for my next Jedi step was beyond pissed at what they had done to this awesome game.

This was the greatest game ever. It was also extremely addictive. I am very grateful I was able to experience the game while it was still good. The path to becoming force sensitive was interactive and immersive and the journey made the accomplishment mean something.

Really good and accurate video! SWG was the best MMORPG ever made, and still is by a lot of metrics. The crafting system is still the best MMORPG crafting system on the market, and the scale of player interactions from entertainers and doctors in major cities to player cities with malls and vendors is only matched by games like Mortal Online. I had a bounty hunter that I used to hunt newly unlocked Jedi and it was amazing. Hunting players across the galaxy, studying the situation, making a plan, ambushing them while they are traveling or trying to headshot them while they grind XP out in the wild? It was so good. It was a game that was made for you to exist in, not for you to just chase thrilling combat or specific quest loot/items. You existed among and within a community, learning the names of the entertainers that you saw at the cantina, and the doctors at the hospital, that one vendor you were talking to while waiting to get buffed who sells you composite armor for cheap.... haha good times.

That New Game Engine is STILL a painful memory for me. I logged in after the change, looked around for a bit, then said my goodbyes to my guild, and never looked back.

Thanks for this video; it was an elegant game for a more civilized age. I miss my flamethrower commando who was also an interior decorator. I was the guild leader of an Imperial RP guild and we had so much fun RPing out of Theed. We'd get dressed up in our stormtrooper armor then walk around Theed and into the cantina accusing random players of being rebels. We of course would be flagged for open PvP and it was so much fun when rebels would just show up out of nowhere. RIP SWG.

It always irks me when the c-suite decides their product can't stand on its own merits and must clone its competition. Honey, I'm here precisely because you are _not_ like them. Please don't make a crappy knock-off of something I already don't want. they are already doing it better than you ever could and even that wasn't enough

Before even looking at the video I'll tell you why. It died, well started dying when SoE nerfed multiple classes so badly they were unplayable and at the same time introduced the NGE patch.

I recommend SWG Infinities if you want a pre CU emulator

I saw this while playing SWG Restoration. Servers are still alive and well still. Restoration server is Pre-NGE with NGE content.

I still have the demo videos of mounts and Jedi knights that LucasArts sent to me for my Galaxies website back in the day. I believe this game was way ahead of it's time - imagine being a Bounty Hunter and actually hunting Jedi/Sith. Amazing game, where you could be literally anybody you wanted to be.

I played this game at launch. The roleplayers loved it, they even made small cities and strip malls with shops and places to hang out.

I remember reading about this game in Game Informer when I was a kid. I didn’t play PC games, only N64 and PS1. I really wanted to play this game. It looked so cool.

They should have just started an additional version of the game - like "SWG lite" so that causal players could have fun, but the idea that there was a more challenging and beloved version existed. Meanwhile the fans in hand wouldn't be disappointed / disrespected. DUMB to change the success they had for a new "Hope this works" venture. Excellent video explaining the whole story.

I absolutely loved Star Wars Galaxies. And no, it wasn't the fighting I was looking for. I was a crafter. Master artisan, master droid engineer, expert weaponsmith, expert armorsmith, and a novice shipwright. I spent my days, digging in the dirt, and was the crafter that all my guildmates and friends came to for all their gear. I had shops on every planet and hoppers on almost every planet. I helped build most of New Wookiesberg, a big city, on Tatooine, on the server I played on. I gave back to the community and would often be seen giving out free swoop bikes and decent starter gear to beginning players. This was before "trolling" became commonplace so the community was amazing. I never once, shot a single shot, swung a single weapon and I'll remember this game to the day I die. So, to my devastation, I woke up one day and my character was forced into a politician role. I couldn't believe it. And Jedi starting popping up everywhere. Gone where the missing days of extremely, rarely seeing a force user, let alone, a group of them. People kept coming up to me asking how was I a Elder with a combat level of one. lol. Apparently, there was a tutorial that forced every new character into killing some things and their combat level would hit mid level 2 or 3 by the end of it. I was done after 3 hours into that game day. I unsubbed and almost never played another mmo again. It was a bad break up, but I'll always remember the good days with it.

I miss this game so much. I was a Awing fighter pilot and made a fortune.. They should have remade something truly OpenWorld like this. but with a random chance at getting a force sensitive char. They could have let people pay for more chances but... idk,

I was among most of the Day 2 players, since most couldn't get into the game on the first day. I had two accounts on Chilastra. I still think that it had the best pvp system(group TEF), the best crafting system in any game, the best skill point system and the best community. All SOE needed to do was work on their loot and mission systems. The CU was bad, but it still felt like SWG combat, just with annoying things added like combat levels, channeling skills and cooldowns for skills. The NGE nuked and dumbed down the game.

Th guild I belonged to was typically running 50+ players online each night pre-CU and while we dropped a bit with the CU, we recovered quickly and even picked up some merging guilds to become larger than before. PVP and other group activities were common every night. On the Server, we were typically creating server content for everyone and even had relationships with the customer service engineers, who helped us with that content creation as well. Then the NGE hit. It gutted the guild. I for one, had been many classes and even had a Jedi character, but my main was focused on Creature Handler since very early in the game and all of my pets were lost to the NGE as they removed the class....pets that I had tamed in the wild as babies, raised and trained over the years....all gone with the snap of a finger. As for the WOW factor, yes, it was clearly pushing the devs, but was never the threat they thought it was. To make that point, while some of the players that left with the CU or NGE did go to WOW, most of the players from our guild at least went to games like EVE Online and City of Heros. No game since SWG has rivaled its community though. I've played most MMOs over the last 20 years at this point and once again led guilds in some of them over that time, but they all have failed to even be 50% of what SWG has in its community and that is the biggest shame in the end. SOE and LA had a game that could have still been running today with a thriving community that prospered and retained players in ways no other MMO has and they flushed it down the drain in their pursuit of WOW subscriber numbers.