Posts tagged star-wars-galaxies 
Some Assembly Required: The ultimate MMORPG
It's been raining for four days straight, and I've been cooped up in my house with nothing but a head cold and a bunch of time to think about my ideal sandbox MMORPG. For this week's Some Assembly Required, then, I'm shamelessly borrowing the format from Massively's MMO Blender column to ...
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite non-combat feature?
Non-combat features don't get a lot of love in popular MMOs these days, but there have nonetheless been some interesting experiments in this department over the years. From RIFT's housing to Star Wars Galaxies' Entertainers to Lord of the Rings Online's music system, several genre titles have ...
The Game Archaeologist: Asheron's Call 2 returns from the dead
No, the above picture is not some sort of long-forgotten, dusty archive picture of Asheron's Call 2 from back in the day; it's from the live game this past Thursday evening. How incredibly, insanely weird is that? Turbine absolutely stunned the MMO community the other day when it casually ...
The Daily Grind: When was the last time a character creator didn't tick you off?
For me, it was PlanetSide 2. Admittedly, I usually prefer insanely robust character creation systems; give me five million options or go away, right? And yet even with all the options, those games with the very best character creation systems -- a moment of silence, please, for Star Wars Galaxies ...
The Daily Grind: What obscure mechanic should become a standard MMO feature?
Over the weekend we learned that The Repopulation will be implementing some sort of Entertainer skill set that is at least partly inspired by similar mechanics in Star Wars Galaxies. SWG's signature non-combat profession is still unique in MMO annals, though, and we got to wondering if there are ...
University study explores game loyalty in MMOs
Developers who want to build a loyal fan base (and subsequently increase profits) might want to check out the findings of a new study conducted by the University at Buffalo School of Management. One of the study's conclusions is something that many MMO gamers probably suspect: Giving players more ...
Hyperspace Beacon: Gearing up for SWTOR Update 1.5
Star Wars: The Old Republic fans have been anticipating this week since the middle of the summer, and many players who dropped the game shortly after launch are looking forward to trying it out again. Veteran players are most likely familiar with how gear progression works in this game, but those ...
Massively Speaking Episode 223: Island vacation getaway
Justin and Lis are packing their bags and setting out on Tyria Cruise Lines for destinations unknown! Even dedicated MMO players need a vacation once in a while, so why not abandon the life of slaughter for a respite on a beautiful beach somewhere? That always sounds good, of course, until one ...
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: A tale of two shutdowns starring City of Heroes
It's been about a year since Star Wars Galaxies was shut down, and for a lot of people that wound is still fresh. For a sadly vocal minority, that wound is so fresh as to provoke a lot of groundless vitriol toward any available target -- but that's not the point. The point is that what happened ...
Disney buys out Lucasfilm, LucasArts for $4.05 billion
Disney is continuing its quest for global domination of the entertainment industry by announcing that it has bought out Lucasfilm -- including the studio's game developing branch, LucasArts -- for $4.05 billion US. While we're sure the nerdosphere has plenty to say about Disney's development of ...
