Star Wars Galaxies finally dying

Balthazor

Gawd
Joined
May 18, 2006
Messages
688
Got this email (I was an active subscriber years ago... must still be on the mailing list.)

Dear Star Wars Galaxies™ Community Member,

We write to you today to inform you that on December 15, 2011, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and LucasArts will end all services (MMO and Trading Card Game) for Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The shutdown of SWG is a very difficult decision, but SOE and LucasArts have mutually agreed that the end of 2011 is the appropriate time to end the game.

We are extremely grateful to all of the SWG fans. We have had the rare opportunity to host one of the most dedicated and passionate online gaming communities and we truly appreciate the support we've received from each and every one of you over the course of the past eight years.

In recognition of your incredible loyalty, we are extending special Fan Appreciation offers to the current SWG community. We also plan to go out with a bang with a galaxy-ending in-game event in December and hope to see you all there. The details relating to these offers and events as well as the timeline and specifics regarding the discontinuation of the service, are provided below.

Again, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our player community for making SWG one of the best online communities in gaming history.

Sincerely,
Sony Online Entertainment & LucasArts

The Fine Details:

Discontinuation of Services:

As of September 15, 2011, the SWG MMO and Trading Card Game will no longer be available for sale or subscription at both retail and all online digital retailers. All billing for active subscribers with accounts in good standing, except for Station Access subscribers, will end on October 15, 2011.

If you are an active subscriber in good standing as of September 15, 2011, then you can play for free for the final months. Players wishing to play through the end of the game and participate in the galaxy-ending event planned for the last week of live service in December will need to re-activate or join the game on or before September 15th. No new or reactivated accounts will be accepted after September 15, 2011.

As of today, June 24, 2011, we are discontinuing the 12, 6, and 3-month subscription plans, meaning these subscription options will no longer be offered for newly created SWG accounts. SWG subscribers who have prepaid six (6) or twelve (12)-month game time plans that extend their subscription period past October 15, 2011 will receive a pro-rated refund for any such pre-paid excess subscription payments*. Such refunds are expected to be issued within 90-days after the game ends.

In addition, we will be discontinuing the sale of all Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game (TCG) digital card packs as of today, June 24, 2011. Loot cards will not be redeemable in the SWG MMO after September 15, 2011. The TCG will continue to operate until the final service closure on December 15, 2011.

Galaxy-Ending Event – Be Part of this Historic Event

During the last week that SWG is available, we're inviting the community to participate in a galaxy-ending event. We're going to end with a bang and we want the final chapter of the galaxy to be written in part by the dedicated and passionate SWG community. Details will be announced at a later date.

Fan Appreciation Offers

We welcome those active SWG subscribers in good standing to play one or all of the below SOE massively-multiplayer online PC games at a fully-paid subscriber status (or “membership” status where relevant) at no cost between October 15, 2011 and December 31, 2011 (subject to the terms and conditions described below). To activate these special offers, use the same Station Account you use now to subscribe to SWG** and simply click on the game you would like to try to download the game software. We are offering the following SOE games: Free Realms®, Star Wars®: Clone Wars Adventures™, EverQuest®, EverQuest® II and DC Universe™ Online. The game software will all be made available for download on a link accessible from the StarWarsGalaxies.com web site beginning on October 15, 2011.
 
What kills me more than anything is that if you google SWG the majority of posts online are about how the game was ruined. If they had just put it back the way it was it would still be plenty crowded today.
 
Well, at least it is free from Oct 15th to the end of the year. I imagine the server being full for at least 1 day before everyone gets bored and goes back to whatever MMO they currently play.

Maybe with the death of post CU and NGE SWG, the PreCU SWG Emu will be fully completed.
 
It needed to be put to rest a few years ago. :(

Edit: Also, this guy beat you.
 
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What kills me more than anything is that if you google SWG the majority of posts online are about how the game was ruined. If they had just put it back the way it was it would still be plenty crowded today.

You haven't had much experience with SOE MMO's, I take it. Once something gets broken, they just break something else to try to make up for the first problem.
 
What kills me more than anything is that if you google SWG the majority of posts online are about how the game was ruined. If they had just put it back the way it was it would still be plenty crowded today.

YES. God I still don't know what those idiots at SOE were thinking. I hope this game goes down in history as a lesson for future companies on how to not royally fuck up an MMO.
 
You haven't had much experience with SOE MMO's, I take it. Once something gets broken, they just break something else to try to make up for the first problem.

I can't think of any SOE's that have gone over well, but I've not looked at anything theyve done since SWG in any detail. I'll never understand how a company could just completely ignore user input. I read an interview with the WoW team where they said one of the most difficult tasks was weeding out bad input from good and I get that I really do, but You literally make one specific change and almost the entire community leaves within a month. I mean what more do they want? Put it the fuck back. gimp it overbalance it whatever retarded thing you wanna do but just put the basic gameplay back the way it fucking was and you'd still be making money. How can they be that retarded?
 
Sony ruined it with upper management changes. They took a pure game play experience and butchered the fuck out of it. However despite that , the community around this game is pretty die hard and I'm sure they've been waiting to hear this for ages since SW:OR was announced.

Well that's how it goes.
 
I wonder if this has anything to do with the new starwars MMO coming out.
 
Wow, I gave up on SWG back in late 03 just before SOE started to really fuck things up. Amazed it lasted this long. Now my collectors edition really will be rare....
 
What kills me more than anything is that if you google SWG the majority of posts online are about how the game was ruined. If they had just put it back the way it was it would still be plenty crowded today.

Not really. The game was dying even before they made any changes. The changes were made to appeal to a much larger demographic. It was either do that or go under back then.

I for one actually like the changes and thought they made for a better game.

I can't think of any SOE's that have gone over well, but I've not looked at anything theyve done since SWG in any detail. I'll never understand how a company could just completely ignore user input. I read an interview with the WoW team where they said one of the most difficult tasks was weeding out bad input from good and I get that I really do, but You literally make one specific change and almost the entire community leaves within a month. I mean what more do they want? Put it the fuck back. gimp it overbalance it whatever retarded thing you wanna do but just put the basic gameplay back the way it fucking was and you'd still be making money. How can they be that retarded?

Actually they didn't ignore user input. Just before launching the NGE they flew out many community members to show them the changes and let them play them first hand. These community members then came back and wrote glowing praise for the changes. I read them at the time they were written though I was no longer playing SWG at the time.
Then the NGE launched and those same community members that were praising it then did a complete 180. So really I don't know what SOE could have done differently. They showed off the changes to the people they flew to their studios to get input and those people gave it a thumbs up in the reviews I read that they wrote. Until later when they changed their minds.
 
This was my favorite game. I dumped shit-loads of time into Creature Handler. Then came nerf after nerf, until finally CH was taken out of the game entirely. At that point I quit, RIP like others have said.... And a big FU for the tease!!!!
 
I really liked many aspects of the game prior to the revamp to make it more action oriented; I think it was called the combat update or something, prior to the NGE. However, it was a bit silly with 'solo grouping', and I think they were trying to create a more group-oriented combat model, like Everquest or WoW. The game had a strange evolution, for sure, and too many changes doesn't appear good for maintaining players.
 
RIP. You game me a lot of great times back in 2004, 2005 but now you are too old and arthritic and euthanasia is in order.
 
2004 and 2005 were awesome cause of this game. I enjoyed the CU, I really did. Wasn't like pre-CU but obviously better than NGE. What angered me most was that CU came out in what, April? And then by October, BAM, NGE.

I may come back to see the end and explore the cities once more. Really loved the game and had quite a few friends in real life that played it. We'd talk strategy, builds, resources...wow. The game was just amazing. So much depth when it came to crafting. So much depth when it came to building your character.


But oh so much fail. So very much fail.
 
2004 and 2005 were awesome cause of this game. I enjoyed the CU, I really did. Wasn't like pre-CU but obviously better than NGE. What angered me most was that CU came out in what, April? And then by October, BAM, NGE.

I may come back to see the end and explore the cities once more. Really loved the game and had quite a few friends in real life that played it. We'd talk strategy, builds, resources...wow. The game was just amazing. So much depth when it came to crafting. So much depth when it came to building your character.


But oh so much fail. So very much fail.

I agree. It's like they gave the CU a month before saying "well, it did not increase our subscriber base 300%, time to bring out the big guns..." -- then BAM, NGE.
 
To be honest, I didnt even realize this game was still around, I thought they closed down years ago after the huge drop off after release....
 
To be honest, I didnt even realize this game was still around, I thought they closed down years ago after the huge drop off after release....

Game was well populated until around mid to late 2005. SWG was already having population issues ( understatement ) by the time WoW came out, and when it's popularity ramped up most SWG servers were ghost towns. Literally. SWG was uniquely dependent on high populations. If you did not have people playing, you did not have the merchants stocked with goods. You did not have people in NPC or player cities. So the feeling of running around in an empty world was compounded exponentially. You'd head off to buy some food or weapons from your favorite vendors that you'd been going to for a while and you'd see they had not restocked their inventory. Then, you'd realize they would never restock their inventory again after that. In WoW, you did not care really if someone quit -- if it was a friend sure, but you'd still get to talk to them. But in SWG, you had people you relied on and got used to seeing or talking to on a somewhat regular basis, and all of a sudden they were gone, and you looked up and the player cities were empty. SWG really had a way of rubbing it's failure into the faces of everyone who kept playing. Empty houses, empty player built cities, merchants. Everything that made SWG great, was a constant reminder that the game had failed once people started to leave. Was a unique experience.
 
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Yeah, totally, the player-contributed nature of the game was pretty incredible. And seeing creature handlers or droid engineers walking around with their varied pets was cool, or seeing the different player-made vehicles and speeder bikes, or clothing.

Some of the player-made cities were very interesting as well.
 
To be honest, I didnt even realize this game was still around, I thought they closed down years ago after the huge drop off after release....

This is what I thought as well. Everyone MMO player I knew qt the time jumped ship years ago, mostly to WoW.
 
I went to Lineage 2, a whole other type of dead zone :D

I wouldn't know really. MMO's really aren't my cup of tea, but I did see lots of people playing SWG when it was new and it was still fun to them, pre-executive meddling. Anyways, that toothy emoticon tells me after a fashion to be thankful that I don't (e.g. time/lifesink?). :)
 
I wouldn't know really. Something tells me after a fashion to be thankful that I don't (e.g. timesink?). :)

I quit about 2 years ago, I do regret playing as I am the type that has to play a lot or not at all and wasted several years of my life (not garbage old people years, those are prime 20s!!!).
 
I quit about 2 years ago, I do regret playing as I am the type that has to play a lot or not at all and wasted several years of my life (not garbage old people years, those are prime 20s!!!).

I hear ya there. If, per se, I'm going to devote my energy and (irreplacable) time into a lengthy RPG, I'm going to see it through to completion, full stop. Ask my fiance about the two weeks of consecutive all-nighters playing Mass Effect 2 post-purchase. :p

And that's why I stay away from MMO's.
 
I quit about 2 years ago, I do regret playing as I am the type that has to play a lot or not at all and wasted several years of my life (not garbage old people years, those are prime 20s!!!).



That is the prime lesson that hopefully SOE/Lucasarts learned -

When they made the sweeping changes, like the NGE, they nullified years of peoples personal investment into their game. MMOs are much different than single or multiplayer games in that players/us have a sense of investment in the games. With the build of of equipment, time spent leveling etc.. We feel like we have earned or accomplished more than our traditional games.

A little with the CU but mainly with the NGE, SOE/LA successfully nullified years of perceived work and time - small changes are ok as long as that sense of accomplishment is still there.


I personally quit SWG years ago but i still have fond memories of the game pre NGE, i loved the open sandbox system, the skill points vs levels, the open professions vs classes etc.. Add onto that a pretty good space element and it really made for a great game.

I didn't agree with the Jedi, even pre NGE Jedi had no place in the Galactic civil war. Infact IMO if they would have focused more on the Galactic Civil war the game would have been much more successful.. Even shortly after the game was released there was questions about the war and even something like moving the time line forward (Hoth was probably one of the most requested expansions/addons).
 
Surprised it lasted this long. Do you think they may be finally killing it now because ToR is coming out soonish? I imagine there is only room for one star wars mmo at a given time.
 
Don't blame EVERYTHING on Smedley and SOE...they deserve a special place in hell, sure. But Torres from Lucas Arts had his mitts in there too...
 
Game was well populated until around mid to late 2005. SWG was already having population issues ( understatement ) by the time WoW came out, and when it's popularity ramped up most SWG servers were ghost towns. Literally. SWG was uniquely dependent on high populations. If you did not have people playing, you did not have the merchants stocked with goods. You did not have people in NPC or player cities. So the feeling of running around in an empty world was compounded exponentially. You'd head off to buy some food or weapons from your favorite vendors that you'd been going to for a while and you'd see they had not restocked their inventory. Then, you'd realize they would never restock their inventory again after that. In WoW, you did not care really if someone quit -- if it was a friend sure, but you'd still get to talk to them. But in SWG, you had people you relied on and got used to seeing or talking to on a somewhat regular basis, and all of a sudden they were gone, and you looked up and the player cities were empty. SWG really had a way of rubbing it's failure into the faces of everyone who kept playing. Empty houses, empty player built cities, merchants. Everything that made SWG great, was a constant reminder that the game had failed once people started to leave. Was a unique experience.

While crafting is a minor hobby in most MMO's it was the foundation of SWG. Very few classes had grinding that did not compound into some sort of utility for other players.

You could spending most of your time farming/tailoring/building housing, droids, vehicles without ever fighting a monster. Of course as you said that means the market place was extremely dependent on the community being large enough to be a self-maintained eco system. I know most people hate the idea of doing things other than wacking monsters with sticks but I just haven't been able to stick with any other MMO since. It just bores me when thats all I'm doing. I just loved the idea that I would get orders from people to build things for them. Even if it was specific gun or raising a particular mount.
 
If this game is shutting down than it must be almost completely dead. Their Vanguard game only has two servers and hasn't been patched in more than a year and is still operational.
 
If this game is shutting down than it must be almost completely dead. Their Vanguard game only has two servers and hasn't been patched in more than a year and is still operational.

Thought that game was long gone. Was terrible.
 
If this game is shutting down than it must be almost completely dead. Their Vanguard game only has two servers and hasn't been patched in more than a year and is still operational.

Or LucasArts is telling them to shut it down so there is only one Star Wars MMO. Remember SW:TOR is supposed to come out in Oct.
 
Or LucasArts is telling them to shut it down so there is only one Star Wars MMO. Remember SW:TOR is supposed to come out in Oct.


Correct, as far as I know thats the reason. Theyre still making a few bucks off it they're just shutting it down to push people over to TOR.
 
I can't think of any SOE's that have gone over well, but I've not looked at anything theyve done since SWG in any detail. I'll never understand how a company could just completely ignore user input. I read an interview with the WoW team where they said one of the most difficult tasks was weeding out bad input from good and I get that I really do, but You literally make one specific change and almost the entire community leaves within a month. I mean what more do they want? Put it the fuck back. gimp it overbalance it whatever retarded thing you wanna do but just put the basic gameplay back the way it fucking was and you'd still be making money. How can they be that retarded?

that infantry game I cant remember the name but top down shooter, i played the bejesus out of that till it went P2P
 
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