We sometimes joke about the impossibility of "winning" an MMO, but in the case of the doomed Star Wars Galaxies sandbox, it's an impending reality.
A brand-new dev post today divulges the details of how the Galactic Civil War that's been raging across the game's servers for the last eight-plus years will be won. In short: "Whoever controls the galaxy at the end will win the war." The Rebels-vs.-Imperials PvP conflict will be settled through the existing planetary control system, in which each side vies for control over key cities on most of the game's planets. The team plans to tweak that system, weighting contributions and important regions to ensure that cheating and early landslide victories are simply not possible. As Mepps himself notes, "a smaller faction fighting smarter still has as much of a chance as a larger faction that assumes it will win." He also promises additional events and methods of GCW point gain as the finale approaches.
Star Wars Galaxies is due to close down mid-December, so players have only a few months left to save or dominate the galaxy once and for all.
Reader Comments (14)
Posted: Oct 6th 2011 11:40PM champagon said
I literally remember playing this game 8 years ago right around now on my little brothers at the time brand new alienware desktop. He just got the new computer and this game. I will never forget playing this game for 12 hours straight with ONE bathroom/food break. I miss ya SWG
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 9:21AM (Unverified) said
@champagon
Haha amen.
I remember hunting babies on different planets as a Creature Handler for HOURS. Just to get that hard to find one.
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Haha amen.
I remember hunting babies on different planets as a Creature Handler for HOURS. Just to get that hard to find one.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 9:08AM Yellowdancer said
@(Unverified)
Truth is...TOR was not going to lure the hardcore SWG players away from the game...and there were quite a few hardcore SWG players. Plus SWG puts a huge spotlight on features TOR lacks.
Truth is...TOR was not going to lure the hardcore SWG players away from the game...and there were quite a few hardcore SWG players. Plus SWG puts a huge spotlight on features TOR lacks.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 10:42AM Resurge said
Dont get me wrong, i loved SWG when i played it at release and the first year, but let's be honest here.
For every great thing SWG has, it has 3 annoying or downright awful things. Nostalgia is great and all, but people are acting as if it was the best game ever and the second coming all wrapped up into one, and i guess a few might feel that way ..but if it was as popular and great as one would be led to believe by these recent swg posts and articles, then it would never have been allowed to die by LA or SoE.
It's a niche game for niche audience, and is unsupportable going into the future obviously, or it wouldn't be getting closed. Many will miss it, and i feel bad for them, but most are looking back with rose-tinted glasses.
For every great thing SWG has, it has 3 annoying or downright awful things. Nostalgia is great and all, but people are acting as if it was the best game ever and the second coming all wrapped up into one, and i guess a few might feel that way ..but if it was as popular and great as one would be led to believe by these recent swg posts and articles, then it would never have been allowed to die by LA or SoE.
It's a niche game for niche audience, and is unsupportable going into the future obviously, or it wouldn't be getting closed. Many will miss it, and i feel bad for them, but most are looking back with rose-tinted glasses.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 11:08AM (Unverified) said
@Resurge
"Dont get me wrong, i loved SWG when i played it at release and the first year, but let's be honest here...."
Yes, let's. You played it seven years ago. I have played it straight since beta as, I suspect, many of the other posters. Lots of pre-CU, pre-NGE players like to opine how broken SWG was, but the truth is, no one who has not played it in the last few years knows anything about how the game plays NOW.
It is not getting closed because it is a "niche game for niche audience, and is unsupportable going into the future obviously." In case you haven't noticed, both EQ and Vanguard, games currently far less popular than SWG, are still being supported by SOE. The REAL truth is, LA declined to extend the license most likely because EA wanted no competition for its WoW in space clone.
You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but if you have not played SWG since its first year, you really have no basis for that opinion.
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"Dont get me wrong, i loved SWG when i played it at release and the first year, but let's be honest here...."
Yes, let's. You played it seven years ago. I have played it straight since beta as, I suspect, many of the other posters. Lots of pre-CU, pre-NGE players like to opine how broken SWG was, but the truth is, no one who has not played it in the last few years knows anything about how the game plays NOW.
It is not getting closed because it is a "niche game for niche audience, and is unsupportable going into the future obviously." In case you haven't noticed, both EQ and Vanguard, games currently far less popular than SWG, are still being supported by SOE. The REAL truth is, LA declined to extend the license most likely because EA wanted no competition for its WoW in space clone.
You are entitled to your opinion, of course, but if you have not played SWG since its first year, you really have no basis for that opinion.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 11:10AM Brianna Royce said
@(Unverified) Thanks for saying what I'm tired of repeating. :D
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Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:26PM (Unverified) said
@Equillian
So, "the time has come" for a game that offers an open world experience, with unfettered space flight, including atmospheric flight (lol to space combat on rails), deep and immersive crafting system, alternative career paths beyond the usual shoot/slash and run, player controlled cities, player built housing, player trained mounts, player created creatures, player created quests, etc.?
Granted, not a hutt ball court or pre-scripted cut scene in sight, but SWG had so much more than any other game currently out there. But maybe you're right - maybe in today's post-WoW world, the only MMO worth supporting is the theme park, run from quest hub to quest hub, fill-in-the-blank variation of WoW. Maybe players really do want to spend all their gaming time talking to NPCs (now with actual voiceovers! Just like EQ2 already tried and abandoned!), running around to kill/collect/deliver, returning to the same NPC, moving onto next NPC, etc. I hope you're wrong - I hope GW2, SOE's next hinted at MMO, heck, maybe even Titan will be something more than the same-old, same-old, but only time will tell.
So mourn SWG or not, but until another game comes along that offers all that SWG offered, please don't tell me that "it's time has come."
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So, "the time has come" for a game that offers an open world experience, with unfettered space flight, including atmospheric flight (lol to space combat on rails), deep and immersive crafting system, alternative career paths beyond the usual shoot/slash and run, player controlled cities, player built housing, player trained mounts, player created creatures, player created quests, etc.?
Granted, not a hutt ball court or pre-scripted cut scene in sight, but SWG had so much more than any other game currently out there. But maybe you're right - maybe in today's post-WoW world, the only MMO worth supporting is the theme park, run from quest hub to quest hub, fill-in-the-blank variation of WoW. Maybe players really do want to spend all their gaming time talking to NPCs (now with actual voiceovers! Just like EQ2 already tried and abandoned!), running around to kill/collect/deliver, returning to the same NPC, moving onto next NPC, etc. I hope you're wrong - I hope GW2, SOE's next hinted at MMO, heck, maybe even Titan will be something more than the same-old, same-old, but only time will tell.
So mourn SWG or not, but until another game comes along that offers all that SWG offered, please don't tell me that "it's time has come."
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 6:19PM Resurge said
@(Unverified) pretty sure i didn't comment on it being broken or anything like that. I said it is a niche game for a niche audience, and I stand by that. I also said i was sure some people felt it was all that and a bag of chips, but it's a small #. The license can't be too cheap ..it is star wars after all, so therefore ..it is unsupportable into the future. It's an expensive game to run, and I am sure considered too much trouble/$$ to keep going. I actually like the game quite a bit, never said I didnt but ever since the closing was announced, people at like it was the greatest most popular game on the market. It is not, and it never was. It was great for what it was, and I am sorry to see it go, but an egg is an egg is an egg, no matter how you cook it.
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Posted: Oct 7th 2011 7:47PM (Unverified) said
@Resurge
" It's an expensive game to run, and I am sure considered too much trouble/$$ to keep going"
Hogwash. SOE was fully committed to keeping it going - as noted above, they JUST implemented atmospheric flight. Lucas Arts set the license fee - if they made it prohibitively expensive, there can be only one reason why. Cuz, ya know, now they are getting zippity doo dah from SOE for SWG.
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" It's an expensive game to run, and I am sure considered too much trouble/$$ to keep going"
Hogwash. SOE was fully committed to keeping it going - as noted above, they JUST implemented atmospheric flight. Lucas Arts set the license fee - if they made it prohibitively expensive, there can be only one reason why. Cuz, ya know, now they are getting zippity doo dah from SOE for SWG.
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 11:11AM (Unverified) said
@Yellowdancer
Very true. And many players, like me, who would have played both games will no longer play TOR. I, for one, will never play another LucasAsts game. Why would I invest any time and effort in a game knowing that LA will pull the license as soon as its next shiny new toy comes out?
Very true. And many players, like me, who would have played both games will no longer play TOR. I, for one, will never play another LucasAsts game. Why would I invest any time and effort in a game knowing that LA will pull the license as soon as its next shiny new toy comes out?
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:11PM (Unverified) said
guess it would cost to much for one of these f2p portals to run the game?
never got to play it but i almsot did right before that 1st culling where they took out like 5 classes or something
never got to play it but i almsot did right before that 1st culling where they took out like 5 classes or something
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 12:29PM (Unverified) said
@(Unverified)
The problem is not that SOE did not want to maintain this game. SOE has supported it until the end, including adding new features like atmospheric flight, even after announcing its shut down.
The game is being closed because Lucas Arts declined to extend the license to SOE, probably because of pressure from EA. Do you really think it is a coincidence that SWG is being turned off five days before TOR launches?
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The problem is not that SOE did not want to maintain this game. SOE has supported it until the end, including adding new features like atmospheric flight, even after announcing its shut down.
The game is being closed because Lucas Arts declined to extend the license to SOE, probably because of pressure from EA. Do you really think it is a coincidence that SWG is being turned off five days before TOR launches?
Posted: Oct 7th 2011 2:11PM KDolo said
@(Unverified)
Then why didnt you play it when it was around?
Then why didnt you play it when it was around?









