Star Wars Galaxies

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

Last week I was given a link to an op-ed piece at Thade's place, and in lieu of posting a comment there, I figured I'd do it on the Soapbox and hopefully generate some discussion (and traffic) for all concerned.

In a nutshell, Thade questions whether MMO pundits actually like MMOs, and he comments on a perceived rise in negativity amongst what are assumed to be fans of the genre.

I don't know if the blogosphere has taken a turn toward the negative, but if so, there's a pretty simple explanation for it. The games have changed, and the old guard who grew up with MMOs (and are willing/able to devote time to blogging about them) have to try a little bit harder to enjoy themselves as each new title gets further and further from what they like. That's OK, though, and it's also OK -- and even essential -- for the disaffected to speak up.

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2011 was an odd duck of a year for MMO news. A huge chunk of the year felt devoid of significant releases, but that was mitigated somewhat by the major launches of RIFT and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Titles got shoved back to 2012 or beyond, MMOs that we thought never would go free-to-play did, and the industry continually surprised us with revelations, ideas, and controversy.

So in my last Perfect Ten of 2011, I put together the 10 most significant MMO stories of the year. Ten seems like an awfully small number for such a great big field, so I had the rest of the staff members chime in with their nominations just to make sure I wasn't too off-base with any of these.

It was a whopper of a year, and Massively was there for all of it -- the ups, the downs, the queues, and the QQs. It's time to wrap it up with a pretty bow and dedicate it to the history museum!

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"Always in motion is the future," Yoda reflected to Luke Skywalker in the greatest of all Star Wars movies, The Empire Strikes Back. Even for a Jedi master, the future is unpredictable and always fluid. Likewise, I made predictions about Star Wars: The Old Republic that were completely off base and some that were spot on. Of course, the ones I got wrong were part of the BioWare plot to subvert everything I do. That's right, I'm looking at you, Georg Zoeller.

This week, I'm going to borrow a phrase from the SWTOR-RP website: Force Reflection. Every weekday, these roleplayers pose a question about SWTOR, Star Wars, or some sort of roleplay trope to get you to think about how you play you character. However, I'm going to use the phrase to think back on the predictions I made in this column, specifically the first article of this year. Which ideas did I get correct? Which ideas did I get totally wrong? I can't be one hundred percent correct all the time. I have to leave room for some errors or else I'd lose my secret job as a psychic-hotline operator.

Jump past the break to judge for yourself.

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Still in mourning and/or shock over Star Wars Galaxies' sunset? Kicking yourself in your rear for never checking out the game while it was still alive? Then Sony Online Entertainment has one last gift for you: a Star Wars Galaxies memory book packed with the game's legacy.

And this isn't a brief "So long and thanks for all the fish" pamphlet, either. The memory book is a whopping 253 pages of information and screenshots documenting the title's eight-year run. Former players and MMO historians can expect to read up on the game's timeline, planet, species, professions, space, ships, housing, cities, the Galactic Senate, the trading card game, the Galactic Civil War, and "The End."

The book immortalizes the near-total Rebel victory in the game with these parting words:

The explosions marking the Empire's end could be seen across the galaxy in the skies above the planets, and the celebrations that followed were unmatched. Peace reigned as Star Destroyers and dark lords became memories of another era, of a time long past, of galaxies long gone.

Gone, but not forgotten.

You can view or download the entire PDF on the official site.

[UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Thanks to everyone who entered!]

On the ninth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... nine SWG mementos!
On the eighth day of giveaways, Enjin gave to me... eight guild-wide gifts!
On the seventh day of giveaways, NCsoft gave to me... seven years of memories!
On the sixth day of giveaways, GamersFirst gave to me... six retail packs!
On the fifth day of giveaways, Trion gave to me... five subscription codes!
On the fourth day of giveaways, Nexon gave to me... four pet items!
On the third day of giveaways, Wargaming.net gave to me... three premium years!
On the second day of giveaways, BioWare gave to me... two warring factions!
On the first day of giveaways, Turbine gave to me... a lifetime VIP!

Your eyes do not deceive you: GamersFirst is making an encore appearance on Massively's 12 Days of Giveaways. Furthermore, today's entry in the list does in fact say "Star Wars Galaxies mementos." The team at GamersFirst loves MMOs just as much as the rest of us and wanted to add a little something to our virtual gift pile to remember SWG by.

Therefore, we've got nine Fallen Earth prize packages, each containing a Supreme Commander Mask and a Lava Stick. When paired, the items bring a little Vader to the Wasteland. All you have to do to enter is get a little creative. Leave your best Star-Wars-style battle cry in the comments below -- with a Fallen Earth Wasteland twist. Check our contest rules below for eligibility, enter by the deadline of tomorrow, December 22nd, at 5:00 p.m. EST, and good luck!

Star Wars Galaxies may be no more, but its legacy lives on in memories, discussion, and hindsight analysis. Sony Online Entertainment's John Smedley had a frank talk with Industry Gamers in which he owns up to the mistakes of how the studio handled the title, particularly surrounding the much-maligned Combat Upgrade and New Game Enhancements.

What would Smedley do if he could go back and give it another try? His first regret is launching the game before the space combat system was done, and his second is that SOE didn't talk and listen to its players more. "We would have encouraged more in-depth discussion with the community surrounding the idea of any game modifications," he said.

Smedley is highly optimistic for the studio's future, particularly in its fervent belief in the free-to-play business model: "We think that 'Free to Play, Your Way' is our future. Giving players choices is the theme of how we're moving forward as a company, which means greater flexibility for our player base."

At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. Miss a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week? You've come to the right post.

MMO closures don't happen all that often, and those that die tend to do so in a fireball of bankruptcy and layoffs not long after launch rather than through peaceful contact negotiations after almost a decade of successful operation, but Star Wars Galaxies joined the latter group this week, sunsetting its servers on Thursday night. If you missed the finale, you can catch up with our recorded livestream of the last hour of the game and our sandbox column's touching eulogy. And there's always that other Star Wars game...

Join us past the break for a glimpse of this week's other top MMO stories.

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Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat!

It was a crazy busy week with so much to talk about, and while we could go all over the map with reader comments, we're going to focus on one last goodbye today. Follow along after the break for our readers' fondest farewells to Star Wars Galaxies.

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Eulogizing Star Wars Galaxies is difficult. In fact, I've written some 2,200 articles since signing on with Massively a couple of years ago, and none of them has come close to being as painful as this particular wall o' text.

The fact that I even used the word eulogy in reference to a video game says it all, really. Join me after the cut for as brief a remembrance as I can manage.

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Community was one of many things that set Star Wars: Galaxies apart from your average MMO, and Sony Online Entertainment's Tony "Teesquared" Tyson took a moment to thank the game's faithful in what serves as the final producer's letter for the shuttered sandbox title.

Tyson touches on several highlights including housing, crafting, entertaining, and space-sim mechanics that were unique to SWG, and he ultimately concludes that the game "was, and will always be, a meaningful and memorable part of my life, an experience I'll treasure and share with anyone who wants to hear a good story."

SOE launched SWG on June 26, 2003 and powered down the servers one final time early this morning.

In previous Guild Counsel columns, we've tackled the issue of players leaving their guilds or even their games, but what about when the game leaves you? Recently, this has become an issue that, sadly, we're seeing more and more often, with announced closings of MMOs and even studios.

This week, Star Wars Galaxies' eight-year-plus run will come to an end, and the servers will shut down at midnight EST tonight. I saw a terrific tribute video made by Kyranna Mythina from the Starsider server, and I wanted to get some thoughts about the game and its closing. Read on for Kyranna's best memories of the game as well as thoughts about the end... and where to go from there.

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Star Wars Galaxies' final day is here. Since last June's announcement that SOE's Star Wars game would be shut down on December 15th, the sandbox fans on the Massively staff have grown ever more sad, and the early arrival of Star Wars: The Old Republic has seemed like salt in the wound. For my part, I can hardly stand to log in without lamenting all the MMO design achievements that will be lost when the servers go dark.

And yet log in I will because a game only has one ending. Some of our writers will be chronicling the last hour on a livestream; others will be hanging out in social centers like Mos Eisley to watch the twin suns set. I'm planning to join a few guildmates near the location of our first guild city, formed just over eight years ago. What about you, readers? Where will you be at the end -- how will you say farewell to SWG?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

A long time ago, in a game industry far, far away, there was an MMORPG called Star Wars Galaxies. It made a lot of people happy (and sad), hung around for eight plus years, and is now being forced into an early retirement by the next big thing.

Before it rides off into the twin sunset, SWG is holding a series of farewell events. According to the patch notes for today's update, the Galactic Civil War score will be frozen on Wednesday, December 14th at midnight EST, at which time Jabba's event kicks off near the Sarlacc Pit in the deeps of the Tatooine desert

Three more events will begin at server restart on Thursday, December 15th, sometime around 7:00 a.m. EST: one near the Research Outpost on Endor, one in the Nub Shanda zone of Coronet, Corellia, and one in the city of Theed on the planet Naboo.

Massively's Karen Bryan and the rest of the SWG-fans among the Massively staff will be livestreaming the final countdown on the Starsider server on Thursday, starting at 11 p.m. EST. Join us as we reminisce about and salute this groundbreaking sandbox.

The sunsetting of Star Wars Galaxies. Beyond the obvious, that statement holds more meaning for me, something deeper and more personal. See, throughout my years in SWG, I would often stop whatever I was doing just to sit and watch the Tatooine suns set. Honestly. Just a simple act of sitting upon the plateau -- sometimes alone, sometimes with friends -- quietly watching one of the universe's greatest pleasures inside an MMO. It was amazing to me how vibrant this galaxy was, filled with so many little details that breathed life into it in a way that I think is still unmatched. Details such as sunsets made the world real, but what really made it "home" was the housing.

Few, if any, games can claim the mastery of housing that Galaxies attained. Quite frankly, it is still the standard by which I measure housing. And there is almost no way to sum it up and do it justice in one short article. Despite this challenge, Some Assembly Required dedicates this 12th issue to immortalizing (and hopefully prodding future developers to emulate) one of the greatest housing systems ever and highlighting the very thing that made this great feature phenomenal: incredible player ingenuity and creativity.

But don't just take my word for it. A number of readers joined in and sent in screenshots of and waypoints to these expressions of creativity. So step on over the threshold for our tribute in word and image to SWG housing and the player creativity it engendered.

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It's seemed like every time I turned around in November, a spritely old-timer of an MMO was showing that it wasn't quite out of the running just yet. I mean, heck, we actually got word of a big change to Battleground Europe, prompting millions to throw their hands up and exclaim, "World War II Online is still actually online? Holy donkeys!"

In a way, I think these older MMOs get a free pass to escape the craziness of having to compete with more modern titles, and as such, they're more confident in their position and freer to pursue whatever is best for the game. You know, instead of trying to ape World of Warcraft (which probably aped them first in the great circle of apes).

So what's been going on with our favorite classic MMOs last month? Let's cast our UltraVision™ back on the events of November to see what's been up with four games and their communities.

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