State of the Galaxy Report

"Time heals all wounds." Or so Sony Online Entertainment and Star Wars Galaxies were hoping. SWG is approaching the first anniversary of its much-publicized NGE. (New Game Enhancements) Veteran players still brave forum bans to plead with the developers for a "Classic" server. Numerous new subscribers, after hearing the tales of Galaxies glory days, are often curious and also desire a chance to play the original game. The game is failing but the war wages on.

Brief re-cap. Star Wars Galaxies was released in June 2003. 32 professions were offered in a skill-based system. Players could mix and match professions creating a custom character. The New Game Enhancements were put into play November 15, 2005, much to anguished cries of current players. The NGE simplified the game from 32 mixable professions to 9 "Iconic" non-interchangeable professions. The details of the new system are of no consequence. The NGE is a failure.

Over the past year, the Star Wars Galaxies team has traveled to major cities, in my mind, as a peace offering. Promises were made, and broken. Hopes were lifted only to have them fall over the recent months. Changes are being made to the game. One could say from suggestions and ideas of the players but realistically, the majority of the changes are adding back some of the game mechanics that were lost while implementing the NGE. These are good steps backwards but can hardly be considered forward momentum.

Developers, Managers, Public Relations have all managed to say exactly the wrong thing in the most public of places. Recently Chris Cao preformed the flame of all flames against SWG subscribers. Raph Koster (Original SWG game designer) Jeff Freeman, among others, were quick to blog the errors of his ways.

The Empire is at war. Battles are fought on the Star Wars Galaxies Forums between Veteran players, new NGE players, Moderators and Developers. Blasters are aimed from other arenas as well. Previous employees of SOE, competitors, and general gaming gurus closely follow the battlefront.

"Who is winning?"

Unfortunately, the competitors. Blizzard and its World of Warcraft gathers the wounded and comforts them in a bug free game. A simple game yet consistent and respectful of its subscribers. New online ventures have already captured the eyes of Star Wars Galaxies players. Many have jumped ship and more are walking the plank.

SOE keeps quiet about the games player base numbers. Subscribers guess at the total. One fact is known the numbers are small. To use Chris Cao's formula, 20% of the player base posts on the forums. After sampling the online forum totals (These numbers are viewable from the Star Wars Galaxies forum) an average of 1,000 people are logged into the forums. The remaining 80% is spread over 26 servers. Not a great slice of the pie considering World of Warcraft has over 6 million players.

The answer to the Galactic dilemma should be open a Classic server and maintain the NGE on the majority of servers. SOE states it will not happen. Once again the details matter not. With every reiteration of "No Classic server", Sony Online Entertainment edges closer to forever encasing Star Wars Galaxies in carbonite.

So we come to the final question. "Are you still playing Star Wars Galaxies?"

Of course however I tend to play Galaxies from the surf side. The conflict, drama, predictions and news of Star Wars Galaxies I find much more exciting than the actual game. Truth is, the NGE doesn't appeal to me. I am not a 9 year old child that dreams of being Princess Leia. The classic game allowed a player to create his or her own adventure in the Star Wars universe. The NGE, with its simplified mechanics, boring combat, the lack of diversity, loss of subscribers and recent push towards PvP (Player vs Player) continue to detour my logging in to the game. My usual SWG gaming consists chatting with the few remaining friends that still play, testing any additions or reverts and logging out.

I would like to say "Happy One Year anniversary" to the NGE but the date more closely marks the decline of Star Wars Galaxies. Time heals all wounds, unless the wounds are fatal.