Star Wars Galaxies comes to an end

Earlier this year in the summer I went back to SWG for the huge “Oops, we lost all of your credit card information” 45 day trial from SOE. It seemed to be a last ditch effort to regain the trust of the consumers that Sony let down. I have went back to SWG several times over the years since I quit at the end of 2005. Most of the times were for free Veteran trials designed to draw players back to the game. Each time I returned, I played a bit, but decided that the game still was not worth playing. I found it interesting that toward the end of the 45 day trial this year, I was considering renewing. Crafting for Weaponsmith regained the complexity it had before the NGE, and if anything far exceeded it. I really could make a weapon that was as good or better than looted weapons or quest rewards. I also reconnected with some old friends, and made a few new ones. I was still on the fence when SOE announced that SWG would end on December 15, 2011. It seemed I dodged a bullet, avoiding being drawn back in.

Almost immediately, most of the old and new friends I met dropped off the map. The ventrilo channel we gathered on seemed like a ghost town. I finished out the few days left of my 45 day trial and decided it was a waste of time to renew if nobody I knew was still playing. Not long after that, SOE announced that active players would have billing stopped for the last few months of play. It took me a while, but I decided to renew just before the cutoff so I’d get those last few months for just $15. I figured I could play a bit more and about $5 a month wasn’t bad for any type of entertainment. Sadly, it seemed that nobody else saw the need to play.

I logged in just a few times over the last month, recovering some uber ship parts from a friend and blowing up the Star Destroyer in Deep Space a few times for old time’s sake. Out of over 300 friends on my friends list, not one was online until yesterday, December 15, 2011. Slowly, a few friends popped up on my last as the evening went by. I chatted a bit with Aliera (former Exiled Force guild member), Fragpuppie (good Entertainer friend from waaay back), Cobie (from PACE guild), Kobie (from PACE guild), and Icarus’ (Shipwright that helped me out during my 45 day trial over the summer).

I headed to my shop and took a few screenshots, drove around Coronet and didn’t really see anyone around. My next stop was Mos Eisley and there were maybe 10-15 people there. I hopped on the forums to see where the “events” were, and decided to go to the Sarlaac pit. There were maybe 15-20 more people there running around, with some infinite fireworks popping off every few seconds. I ran across one person that said he still had a few of my weapons from back in the day. That was very good to hear. I’m amazed that those weapons are (were!) still hanging around almost 6 years after I stopped making them. About 45 minutes before the servers were supposed to go down, I lost connection and the server showed up as “loading.” For a few minutes I figured that SOE would just write Chilastra off and not worry about fixing it. A few minutes later it was back online.

I logged back in and did a few chores around the house. About 5 minutes before the scheduled end, I hopped in and switched to the ventrilo channel for the old PACE guild. I asked where they were, and they said to come to Endor to watch the Death Star. I did not think I could make it in time, but with the use of my Slave I ITV, I quickly traveled to Bestine, then took the my Advanced X-Wing to the Smuggler Outpost on Endor. I walked up a hill to meet Cobie and Kobie for the end of the server. We took a few screenshots and prepared, wondering if there would be something awesome like the Death Star blowing up Endor or something like that. We were very underwhelmed when all that happened was a message popping up on the screen, seen countless times before, but this would be the last.

“Connection to SWG lost!”

The End of SWG

1 thought on “Star Wars Galaxies comes to an end”

  1. The last Star Wars game I played was Super Return of the Jedi. I loved it. I don’t know, playing a non-canon storyline was never been my thing — my buddies say I’m nuts.

    I do like reading reviews and checking out new games when they come out. I just don’t like to play em. Super Nintendo is my system!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you are a human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Post

Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) by BioWareStar Wars: The Old Republic (2011) by BioWare

Back in 2000, I heard of a new Star Wars MMORPG that would come out sometime in the new future. I knew immediately that I would play the game, soon to be called Star Wars Galaxies. I was accepted into Beta 3 and played from that time until I quit at the end of 2005 following the New Game Enhancements “upgrade.” Sometime around 2005 or a little after, there were rumors of a new Star Wars MMO.  This was to eventually become Star Wars: The Old Republic by Bioware, announced in 2008. I was not ready for a new MMO but nevertheless I signed up for the news. I’ve been following it rather loosely ever since.

I managed to get into the beta stress test last weekend and played two different characters. First off, the game intro movie was awesome. It was very well done and I have to say it gave me some of the same chills as the original movies did. There is also an additional movie depending on whether or not you pick the Sith Empire or Galactic Republic. Here is a mashup of all 3 videos.

Cosplay Samus Aran from Metroid back for HalloweenCosplay Samus Aran from Metroid back for Halloween

metroid-costume

So it looks like all of the crazy costumes are popping out of the woodwork now that Halloween is coming around again. Brain Alien over at What the Photo brings this pic to my attention again. It brings back memories. No, not those of Sith Vixen in her Femtrooper outfit, which by the way is one of my TOP incoming links on Google (currently ranked #1 for image search).

The memories it brings back to me are those of my first Nintendo games. Every once in a while I get nostalgic, and feel the urge to play my old games. Metroid and Legend of Zelda were my first two “console” games. I earned the money for my NES and games through my own sweat (TRUE, I lived in Phoenix, AZ) and blood (not so true) delivering newspapers in the summer during my spare time. OK, that’s a story my wife’s heard way too many times, so I’ll move on. I still have my original NES and all of my games boxed up in long term storage. If I feel the need to play, I whip out my trusty emulator, but not everyone has access to the ROMs or the patience to get and emulator working right.

I knew that a few years ago the Nintendo’s patent on the NES expired in the US around 2006 or so. Since then a site called VirtualNES popped up. I didn’t realize it, but according to some very sound arguments, their site is legal. . Consider it a free online arcade. If you’ve never played Metroid, check it out!

Play Metroid Online — note, requires Java plugin

Controls:

Controller 1 Controller 2

Left

Left Button NumberPad 4
Right Right Button NumberPad 6
Up Up Button NumberPad 8
Down Down Button NumberPad 2
Select Right Control Button NumberPad 3
Start Enter / Return Key NumberPad 1
A X NumberPad 7
B Z NumberPad 9

Star Wars Galaxies 2003-2005Star Wars Galaxies 2003-2005

I figured that I should add a review for Star Wars Galaxies because I played for two and a half years. I can’t really remember when SWG was announced, but as soon as it was I signed up for the beta. I didn’t get invited until Beta 3, but I was still thrilled. A major thing that set SWG apart from other MMORPGs was the ability to dabble in different professions, or even surrender skills to start a new template fresh without starting a new character. Also, there was the fact that we could build our ships with custom parts and battle against each other in space. Unfortunately, the space portion was not finished by release and was later released as the expansion Jump to Lightspeed. (more…)