I came from a background of UO, AO, WW2OL, and a few fringe MMO's when I entered SWG.
And now, I find myself unable to play and enjoy any MMO's that is based on:
Classes (I really don't like to be shoehorned any more, I want to be "myself")
Whack-a-Mole interdependency. (All you need other people for is to whack the bigger beasts..Nothing else. I want a real community)
Handheld socalled "unique" storylines that makes you and the thousands of other players the "ONE" hero. (Again, boils down to wanting, needing to be "myself", my story, my experience, my adventure..Not a B-movie script for me to follow)
Themepark based games(Static themepark games, where the world and its dynamics are not present. MMO's today are like visiting Disneyworld..Nothing changes, you have no stake in the world, nothing, nada..Nothing changes)
PvP/Raiding Endgame (Why would I want to whack-a-mole PvP for the rest of my MMO life? Why would I want to spend the other time stuck in a dungeon so I can get the uber armor that gives me 1 more to armorclass? Boooring!!)
SWG was the players game, the players created the dynamics of the world, the players were the focal point of the game, their story, their adventures, their need for eachother in every aspect of the game.
No other MMO offers that. They are all "follow the story or buzz off!" and "WTF mate? You picked a sword, and a sword is what you'll do for the rest of your life!" and, well basicly very shallow games. It's like reading a book and not have anything to do with what happends or when it ends.
I miss SWG, I miss being a MMO gamer... But there are no MMO's out there for me and most SWG-Exiles. We were outcast so that SOE/LEC could attempt to try and grab ththose that were content with games that are only about whack-a-mole gameplay, be it mobs or players.
Whats funny is, I was almost tempted to get LOTRO, but it only took me 10 levels in the beta to feel like "Gordon Freeman", stuck following the one corridor, shooting the few mobs selected to be in that corridor, and only seeing the great world out there, by peeking out the windows of his corridor prison.
i have played other games, but they do not offer the unique, in-depth game immersion SWG Pre-CU did. It wasn't all about 'PvP', it was a game where all apsects of playing in a virtual 'world' was allowed to be expressed. This is what kept the veterans playing (and paying) and it was destroyed for the PvP mentality $OE thought would increase subscriptions.
I have enjoyed some games, but they do not offer the immersion or game complexity outside PvP/PVE I miss. Entertainment, running and being part of a 'living' city, player crafting/economics, skill based, 32 professions, healthy game population, etc....elements of the once great SWG that have been adversely affected, nerfed, removed, or horribly mutated thanks to the NGE. *Sigh*
The worst, buggiest day in Pre-CU beats anything the CU or NGE offered/offers on their best days.
This is probably why alot of the pre-CU veterans (and yes, I am one of them) out there are so upset that things went the way they did with SWG. There hasn't been a game since then, with the complete freedom to do what you want, play the game your way, and live in the Star Wars world the way that best suits your desires. That's not to say that games since then have stunk, but there has not been a community (which in my opinion is the key component in any MMO) like there was in SWG. I played EQ2 and WoW (amoung many others) mainly because I had friends and/or family playing to keep the games interesting for a while, but where else can you sit around a cantina watching some sexy dancers, who actually provide a service, while knocking back a cold one and chatting with your friends? ...and where else can you play a character you want that isn't the biggest, strongest, fastest and still have one hell of a time?
I had a childhood dream to play a smuggler and I did from day one until the day I left, never had any interest in becoming a jedi, but yet the game kept me around for a while because of the many things I could do. But alas, the smuggler love that was promised never came, and the game changed quite drastically and it drained my desire to keep playing, but the inginuity and community that once was will never be lost or duplicated.
I am playing LoTRO right now, and it does seem to have a decent community (at least on the server I play on), so I'm hoping with contents updates and add-ons it might come close to SWG, but I strongly doubt it.
All of your posts are just so true and I agree.... I can't bring myself to play some games and even if I do, I end up just roleplaying in them because I don't find the game itself actually interesting, even with Saga of Ryzom the game just doesn't feel right, you are limited to just running around grinding regardless of the fact that it has skill points rather than a level system. One thing I hate about games now also it that there is not as much 'incentive' to grind as there was in pre-cu SWG, in pre-cu you could grind for ships, grind for your own bases and even get AT-ST's in them or fill it with stormtroopers, you could get uniforms and weaponry. Then there was the cities, you could grind to eventually become the owner of your own city, hold elections.... Why?! Why in the hell do developers insist on crappy little grind games that don't even give half-decent rewards out for all the work and effort you put in! In Star Wars Galaxies I could see my character get stronger the more I grind, I could get new abilities that had animations with them to boot, new weapons, I could train in ANYTHING I wanted.
This is why I'm so upset with the changes for the most part, once the emu comes out I'm pretty damn sure that once the average player who just got into MMORPG's now who plays it will want something better, but now... I just looked through the games list hopelessly and see the exact same thing, mindless grind time sinks that offer no reward at the end, I want to see my character to get stronger not with just items and equipment or levels, I want him to become stronger through skill and experience, to be able to use different tactics.
I just wish they'd do more games like pre-cu NOW not just screw us around with the pathetic marketing slang like "next generation" or "massive scale" in pre-cu I could act like a real soldier, not just stand and press hot keys for several hours until my fingers went sore, I could kneel or go prone to get bonuses depending on which weapon I picked, I could use the terrain to my advantage and get up on a hill while the enemy tried to run up after me.
They have NONE of that in MMORPG's now... If they did, I wouldn't care as much about the changes anymore, but they ruined a game with such huge potential that it would take a large player base if they had bothered to fix the bugs. But now? It's just like the others, it's no longer unique, it's not longer special, it's no longer fun.
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
Pre-CU SWG for me and maybe alot of people was like another life, one you could login to when the real world was getting u down. Now every other mmo is just a game. Not a world that you can really immerse yourself into and get lost in your character. Just a game, with fancy bright lights and shiny weapons.
I agree. I had the same feeling about SWG it was indeed another life. No other mmo has come close to that feeling and like many of you I have tried them all. However one mmorpg has filled a small part of that feeling I got in SWG. EQ2 is the only other mmo I have played where I feel it is a world and my characters are alive. All the other mmos I have tried the characters where just vehicles for me to interact with the game enviroment. While EQ2 has nowhere near the amount of things to do or as open as SWG, it has kept me interested for 2.5 years. I dearly miss pre-nge SWG. We may never have that experience again but EQ2 does make a fine game experience that I can get lost in for small bits of time. However the days of getting lost in SWG for 8 hours at a time are over.
Damn you people, your making me home sick. And yes, everything else does suck in comparison. I don't think anyone else has the guts or know how to make a game that is that challenging to the player. Thanks for the memories.
In a way, playing SWG from launch to CU probably let me enjoy WoW far longer than I would have otherwise. They were such diametrically opposed games that it was easy to appreciate the differences instead of merely comparing the games to one another.
Myself and some other hardcore SWG crafters loved that we didn't have to be ready to drop everything to go drop harvesters on a new resource spawn. We loved that we could stay away from the game for a few days and not miss the one or two day spawns of uber resources that seemed to be so popular on Shadowfire. I loved being able to log in without hearing the /tell chrips before my client even fully loaded. We loved being able to log in and run out into combat without going through the ritual of buffing our characters, and we loved being able to log out after half an hour and not feel like we were wasting our buffs.
The handholding in content was such a shock that I actually enjoyed it. The scripted encounters were my favorite part of the game for the year I played, but eventually the disruption in immersion took its toll on me. I probably ran UBRS a few dozen times, and killing Rend over and over again took those scripted encounters and made them routine.
I really think that if SWG hadn't prepared me for WoW by being its polar opposite that I would've hated WoW. As it was, I got a year out of it. The positive part of WoW was that the community was so piss-poor that it allowed me to enjoy single-player games again. I had a stack of single player PC and console games a mile high when I finally quit MMORPG's, and I've been able to keep up the gaming habit without spending a dime for a long, long time.
Not sure I could go back to a pre-CU SWG. I've got high hopes for the emu, hoping that there are quality servers that disable Jedi and cut down on the general grinding. I've got no need to feel like a big fish anymore, and I'd love to play in a grind-free community.
I have searched for a new MMO since leaving SWG at the onset of the NGE, all to no avail. SWG was my first MMO and by far the best. Check my sig for the games that I have tried, none of them can compare to Pre-CU SWG, they all seem really simple and boring in comparison. I pop back to SWG for a month or two from time to time, but the current game is just like all the others except with a Star Wars skin so I always end up leaving again.
If Age of Conan, Fallen Earth and The Secret World dont deliver I will be finished with MMO's for good as I cant seem to recapture the sense of fun I had back in 2003-2005 with SWG.
MMORPG History: Playing - EVE Online. Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion. Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9). Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
Since a couple weeks after the nge I really havent played a game for more than 2-3 months(and those were alpha/beta's). Everything else its a couple of weeks or a month then try out the next one. Hope i can make my new home AoC.
Must be a curse, If I really like the game it changes or is canned. swg, major changes, motor city online, da boot. two best games I've played. Yo, maybe you guys could give soe a break and start pounding Ea. they really, really pissed me off, how dare they shelf mco, just to make that broke dick game the sims
yup, same boat as you. I tried kotor, game of the year and all that, great story line, unique, completely boring. I couldn't finish it. I needed a more dynamic game, basically another mmorpg with other people and an open feel. So I started playing WoW, sucked, tested lotro, sucked, stopped wasting my time and started reading up on games first. They all suck. I needed a non-linear sandbox type game with a player driven economy and skill box advancement system, basically I need another preCU.
The only game im looking foward to is WAR, but i have to admit PotBS is interesting and different. Read this review, it sounds like it could be the next game for you sir.
nothing holds my interest now, i tried some mmo like guild wars, lotr beta, eve trial, final fantasy 11, and none held me like swg pre-cu, i think i played those titles 2 months max and some less like eve(only 14 days). now i play a single player games for like a week and that's about it, i miss swg.
Well i played star wars galaxies from the first weekend that it was released all the way to the couple of weeks after NGE was launched. SWG is easily the best game i have ever played and could be the best game i will ever play. Since i quit SWG after nge was released i have had a very difficult time of getting into other mmorpgs. I play them for a while and get bored, sometimes before i even reach endgame content. I have pretty much gone through every mmorpg out there i have tried many free ones and almost all subscription ones. Star Wars Galaxies had so much content with housing, open worlds to explore and discover places that were truely unique, building player cities and guilds, PvPing, Crafting, or just hanging out with my friends. SWG had so much more content than any other mmorpg i have played, it kept me playing for 3 full years compared to the sometimes less than 1 month many games can entertain me for now. I have pretty much gone through every mmorpg out there and i find myself extremely bored right now with no games left to try. All this time i have been looking for a game to replace SWG but none can even compare. Is anyone else here in the same boat as me, and if not what games have you guys found that can keep you entertained?
I think I agree with what you've said about SWG. It was a truely unique experience. I have tried other mmorpgs since the fall of SWG, and EQ2 has been my favorite since, but none have been as entertaining as pre-CU SWG. I thought Vanguard might be something that would expand into what SWG was once like, but that isn't happening. Now, EQ2, LotRO, and others are becoming too narrowed down into the standard WoW format.
I used to post everday on mmorpg.com. I've lost interest in mmorpgs, though, something I never though would happen. I was so let down by several mmorpgs that have come out lately. I hope some other the newer mmorpgs coming out soon will help to give new life to mmorpgs and renew my interest in them.
Not any MMO can retain my attention since CU&NGE destroyed our home. Pre-cu SWG wasnt my first game, but was the best - even buggy or 'unbalanced' -. I made a lot of friends, maybe in the most far corner of Lok i was just making a BH mission and someone came in a swoop and we were having a long talk, about SW issues, about skills, about what we were about and about Friendship, at last.
And yes, i've checked every classy-linear mainstream MMO (and also DnL and other ones that were so promising)and there is no chance i stay there for more than one month; no need to say how boring, stoopid and narrow they seem to me.
Thinking on giving a try to Vanguard...
Pre-CU SWG Vet here. Radiant. mBH.
(And yes, you forget to add the BH community, i miss it all a lot)
This is probably why alot of the pre-CU veterans (and yes, I am one of them) out there are so upset that things went the way they did with SWG. There hasn't been a game since then, with the complete freedom to do what you want, play the game your way, and live in the Star Wars world the way that best suits your desires.
I think this hits the nail right on the head. The problem for those of us who liked the basic pre-CU system (for all its flaws), is that no other game exists anymore that can attract us. All the other games are of a single style, totally different from pre-CU SWG. So the problem is not just that they destroyed our game with the NGE, but that there really is not OTHER game for those of us who liked that pre-CU style, to get into. Ryzom is the only one that comes close, and it's not a bad game, but it's also no SWG.
Nothing is.
And that is why, almost 2 years post-NGE, there are still thousands of players sitting around lamenting the death of the original SWG. It's not that we "can't get over it" for that one game, but that we have nowhere else to go *to*, nothing to replace it with.
If WOW shut down tomorrow, the WOW players could find other, similar games to get their "WOW fix" from -- ones close enough to slake their thirst. But for pre-CU SWG fans, there isn't anything to get our "SWG fix" from, and it's not looking like there will be for many, many years to come at this point.
And that's why we keep coming here and reminiscing... because that game style just does not exist anywhere else, so if you liked it, you're basically hosed, more or less for good as far as we can tell.
I am playing WoW, but it is nowhere near as good as Pre-CU. In SWG I had a job that kept me busy - Master Ranger. I had a real life note book that listed what trades needed what harvestable materials. I checked the web everyday to see if anything good was available. I think that is what was so great about SWG we had a reason to login everyday and work on our professions. It was possible for a single player to be sucessful in that game without being in an elite guild or even having epic equipment - you just had to know your role in the Galaxy.
Yes master ranger was fun wasn't it. As one on these forums said, it was not a profession, it was a way of life. Even as a broken profession Master Ranger was still a blast. It was also one of the most profitable professions around, and one of the easiest ways to make money.
And not just hunting animals. I don't know why, but I found hunting humans great as a master ranger. I had a few bounty hunters employ me to scout out an area and fix someone's precise location and I could follow them from quite a distance, transmit that to the bounty hunter, tell them what direction they were heading in, etc. It was real time intelligence that a droid couldn't provide. (I.e. I could also identify escorts, what kind of mobs were around the mark, etc.) This kind of created content made ranger a blast for me, and provided a break from hunting contracts. (While they were fun, they became less of an incentive when I had over 100 million credits and a flourishing resource business lol.)
yup, same boat as you. I tried kotor, game of the year and all that, great story line, unique, completely boring. I couldn't finish it. I needed a more dynamic game, basically another mmorpg with other people and an open feel. So I started playing WoW, sucked, tested lotro, sucked, stopped wasting my time and started reading up on games first. They all suck. I needed a non-linear sandbox type game with a player driven economy and skill box advancement system, basically I need another preCU.
The only game im looking foward to is WAR, but i have to admit PotBS is interesting and different. Read this review, it sounds like it could be the next game for you sir.
Our guild is already positing POTBS as our "reunion" game. SWG was the game we all played, then when the CU and the NGE came out, we branched off into all these other games (WoW being the prominent one.) While it is still awhile away, everyone is going nuts over POTBS in our guild, because it really doesn't seem like the linear (or at least not like WoW.)
Thanks for posting everyone, makes me feel better to know that im not the only one feeling this way. I think what i loved about SWG was the amount of freedom that there was. You could do so many things that you can do in real life as well as many things you cant. There was nothing more fun to me than just hanging out with my guild in our city and looking at the houses, streets, and gardens all around us so carefully organized. There was so much to do, if you got bored of one thing there were maybe 300 other things you could do with your time. Half of what i enjoyed about star wars galaxies wasnt even part of the game but was created by the players themselves. Star wars galaxies had a great community. People rarely smack talked in pvp like they do in so many mmorpgs today, and members of the opposite faction were equally friendly to me as those of my own faction. Recent mmorpgs have literally two things to do. Grind, and pvp. Sure you can stand around in an npc town and hang out but its just not the same. There is only one path, level up to max lvl, and pvp. In star wars galaxies you could enjoy the game just as much as anyone else without even mastering a class. The combat and pvp in SWG was good but nothing special. Personally i think im just going to wait for a new mmorpg with an open world and player housing to replace SWG. Unfortunately now that every mmorpg produced is WoW with different graphics i could be waiting a long time.
Thanks for posting everyone, makes me feel better to know that im not the only one feeling this way. I think what i loved about SWG was the amount of freedom that there was. You could do so many things that you can do in real life as well as many things you cant. There was nothing more fun to me than just hanging out with my guild in our city and looking at the houses, streets, and gardens all around us so carefully organized. There was so much to do, if you got bored of one thing there were maybe 300 other things you could do with your time. Half of what i enjoyed about star wars galaxies wasnt even part of the game but was created by the players themselves. Star wars galaxies had a great community. People rarely smack talked in pvp like they do in so many mmorpgs today, and members of the opposite faction were equally friendly to me as those of my own faction. Recent mmorpgs have literally two things to do. Grind, and pvp. Sure you can stand around in an npc town and hang out but its just not the same. There is only one path, level up to max lvl, and pvp. In star wars galaxies you could enjoy the game just as much as anyone else without even mastering a class. The combat and pvp in SWG was good but nothing special. Personally i think im just going to wait for a new mmorpg with an open world and player housing to replace SWG. Unfortunately now that every mmorpg produced is WoW with different graphics i could be waiting a long time.
Our city was very well planned, and had a lot of entertainment. Our cantina (The Drunken Imperial) was a frequent meeting place for guildies. Our town hall had a massive meeting room for the guild (always had the exact number of guildmates for chairs plus 5 guest chairs for reps of other guilds), the elder council room (which sometimes had people in ST armor rp'ing as gaurds), and another building served the purpose specifically of conducting meetings with other Imperial guilds.
There was "embassy drive" as I jokingly referred to it, of medium and large houses (large only for our closest allies) of other Imp guilds that had a safe house and meetingplace setup in our city.
We also encouraged overt shoppers to come and buy wares, and even engage in a lil PvP. We had 4 large factional bases in a cross formation around the shuttleport, as well as faction scanners littered around the port and bases. any rebels who came into town were almost sure to encounter problems. What was funnier was the rebels took heart to this plan, and there were constant raids on the bases, where rebels truly acted as rebels do, attacking a financial target as well as a military one. (Attacking customers and our mall, as well as our bases.)
You can't do these sorta things in the linear games that place no emphasis on community.
SWG is still the BIGGEST and the BOLDEST mmo to me. Sadly it seems BIG AND BOLD is destined to flop... like Vanguard... tried to be so much more than just a Copy/Paste mmo and sadly.... *sigh*
Why do I write, create, fantasize, dream and daydream about other worlds? Because I hate what humanity does with this one.
yeah.. Pre CU was so uber .. You could go from one player city to another and actually stumble into another person that wasn't a bot using a macro program to grind exp.. Pre CU was so uber that guilds and player cities started falling off the map faster then you can say Nerf.. Pre CU was so great that one can spend hours and hours running super exciting delivery missions and kill lil rabbits in the wild.. Pre CU was so uber that 90% of the entertainers in cantinas were afk macro bots.. Pre CU was so uber that they forget to put in jedi's.... This was Star Wars right? Pre CU was so uber that everyone owned a Rancor or two as pets.. (remember hearing the words Pet Wars at times) Pre CU was so uber food and drinks didn't mean crap.. Pre CU was so uber that combat classes got nerfed weekly.. Pre CU was so uber that many cities became ghost towns when 50% of the population bailed and left the game..
so..what was it that made SWG to uber great pre CU again?
yeah.. Pre CU was so uber .. You could go from one player city to another and actually stumble into another person that wasn't a bot using a macro program to grind exp.. Pre CU was so uber that guilds and player cities started falling off the map faster then you can say Nerf.. Pre CU was so great that one can spend hours and hours running super exciting delivery missions and kill lil rabbits in the wild.. Pre CU was so uber that 90% of the entertainers in cantinas were afk macro bots.. Pre CU was so uber that they forget to put in jedi's.... This was Star Wars right? Pre CU was so uber that everyone owned a Rancor or two as pets.. (remember hearing the words Pet Wars at times) Pre CU was so uber food and drinks didn't mean crap.. Pre CU was so uber that combat classes got nerfed weekly.. Pre CU was so uber that many cities became ghost towns when 50% of the population bailed and left the game..
so..what was it that made SWG to uber great pre CU again?
I think you are very confused my friend........ sad really. /tell Rydeson <----------- uber geek
Comments
I came from a background of UO, AO, WW2OL, and a few fringe MMO's when I entered SWG.
And now, I find myself unable to play and enjoy any MMO's that is based on:
SWG was the players game, the players created the dynamics of the world, the players were the focal point of the game, their story, their adventures, their need for eachother in every aspect of the game.
No other MMO offers that. They are all "follow the story or buzz off!" and "WTF mate? You picked a sword, and a sword is what you'll do for the rest of your life!" and, well basicly very shallow games. It's like reading a book and not have anything to do with what happends or when it ends.
I miss SWG, I miss being a MMO gamer... But there are no MMO's out there for me and most SWG-Exiles. We were outcast so that SOE/LEC could attempt to try and grab ththose that were content with games that are only about whack-a-mole gameplay, be it mobs or players.
Whats funny is, I was almost tempted to get LOTRO, but it only took me 10 levels in the beta to feel like "Gordon Freeman", stuck following the one corridor, shooting the few mobs selected to be in that corridor, and only seeing the great world out there, by peeking out the windows of his corridor prison.
I also have fallen into the void after CU, but there are a few people out there actually designing pre-CU servers,
most are still working on the combat dynamics of the game, but some seem to be on the right track.
If you want to have a look, Google SWGEMU.
i have played other games, but they do not offer the unique, in-depth game immersion SWG Pre-CU did. It wasn't all about 'PvP', it was a game where all apsects of playing in a virtual 'world' was allowed to be expressed. This is what kept the veterans playing (and paying) and it was destroyed for the PvP mentality $OE thought would increase subscriptions.
I have enjoyed some games, but they do not offer the immersion or game complexity outside PvP/PVE I miss. Entertainment, running and being part of a 'living' city, player crafting/economics, skill based, 32 professions, healthy game population, etc....elements of the once great SWG that have been adversely affected, nerfed, removed, or horribly mutated thanks to the NGE. *Sigh*
The worst, buggiest day in Pre-CU beats anything the CU or NGE offered/offers on their best days.
This is probably why alot of the pre-CU veterans (and yes, I am one of them) out there are so upset that things went the way they did with SWG. There hasn't been a game since then, with the complete freedom to do what you want, play the game your way, and live in the Star Wars world the way that best suits your desires. That's not to say that games since then have stunk, but there has not been a community (which in my opinion is the key component in any MMO) like there was in SWG. I played EQ2 and WoW (amoung many others) mainly because I had friends and/or family playing to keep the games interesting for a while, but where else can you sit around a cantina watching some sexy dancers, who actually provide a service, while knocking back a cold one and chatting with your friends? ...and where else can you play a character you want that isn't the biggest, strongest, fastest and still have one hell of a time?
I had a childhood dream to play a smuggler and I did from day one until the day I left, never had any interest in becoming a jedi, but yet the game kept me around for a while because of the many things I could do. But alas, the smuggler love that was promised never came, and the game changed quite drastically and it drained my desire to keep playing, but the inginuity and community that once was will never be lost or duplicated.
I am playing LoTRO right now, and it does seem to have a decent community (at least on the server I play on), so I'm hoping with contents updates and add-ons it might come close to SWG, but I strongly doubt it.
This is why I'm so upset with the changes for the most part, once the emu comes out I'm pretty damn sure that once the average player who just got into MMORPG's now who plays it will want something better, but now... I just looked through the games list hopelessly and see the exact same thing, mindless grind time sinks that offer no reward at the end, I want to see my character to get stronger not with just items and equipment or levels, I want him to become stronger through skill and experience, to be able to use different tactics.
I just wish they'd do more games like pre-cu NOW not just screw us around with the pathetic marketing slang like "next generation" or "massive scale" in pre-cu I could act like a real soldier, not just stand and press hot keys for several hours until my fingers went sore, I could kneel or go prone to get bonuses depending on which weapon I picked, I could use the terrain to my advantage and get up on a hill while the enemy tried to run up after me.
They have NONE of that in MMORPG's now... If they did, I wouldn't care as much about the changes anymore, but they ruined a game with such huge potential that it would take a large player base if they had bothered to fix the bugs. But now? It's just like the others, it's no longer unique, it's not longer special, it's no longer fun.
Quoting people doesn't make you clever, in fact, it makes you all the more stupid for not bothering to read the quotes you post in the first place.
I agree. I had the same feeling about SWG it was indeed another life. No other mmo has come close to that feeling and like many of you I have tried them all. However one mmorpg has filled a small part of that feeling I got in SWG. EQ2 is the only other mmo I have played where I feel it is a world and my characters are alive. All the other mmos I have tried the characters where just vehicles for me to interact with the game enviroment. While EQ2 has nowhere near the amount of things to do or as open as SWG, it has kept me interested for 2.5 years. I dearly miss pre-nge SWG. We may never have that experience again but EQ2 does make a fine game experience that I can get lost in for small bits of time. However the days of getting lost in SWG for 8 hours at a time are over.
Damn you people, your making me home sick. And yes, everything else does suck in comparison. I don't think anyone else has the guts or know how to make a game that is that challenging to the player. Thanks for the memories.
Rebel Col. Moshi Manawitz-Master Commando/Master Smuggler/Master Pilot-Pre NGE Vet.-Server:Chilistra-
RIP April 04-Jan 06
In a way, playing SWG from launch to CU probably let me enjoy WoW far longer than I would have otherwise. They were such diametrically opposed games that it was easy to appreciate the differences instead of merely comparing the games to one another.
Myself and some other hardcore SWG crafters loved that we didn't have to be ready to drop everything to go drop harvesters on a new resource spawn. We loved that we could stay away from the game for a few days and not miss the one or two day spawns of uber resources that seemed to be so popular on Shadowfire. I loved being able to log in without hearing the /tell chrips before my client even fully loaded. We loved being able to log in and run out into combat without going through the ritual of buffing our characters, and we loved being able to log out after half an hour and not feel like we were wasting our buffs.
The handholding in content was such a shock that I actually enjoyed it. The scripted encounters were my favorite part of the game for the year I played, but eventually the disruption in immersion took its toll on me. I probably ran UBRS a few dozen times, and killing Rend over and over again took those scripted encounters and made them routine.
I really think that if SWG hadn't prepared me for WoW by being its polar opposite that I would've hated WoW. As it was, I got a year out of it. The positive part of WoW was that the community was so piss-poor that it allowed me to enjoy single-player games again. I had a stack of single player PC and console games a mile high when I finally quit MMORPG's, and I've been able to keep up the gaming habit without spending a dime for a long, long time.
Not sure I could go back to a pre-CU SWG. I've got high hopes for the emu, hoping that there are quality servers that disable Jedi and cut down on the general grinding. I've got no need to feel like a big fish anymore, and I'd love to play in a grind-free community.
I am grasping at straws trying to find something to fill the void left by the absence of pre-cu SWG.
My signature tells the story.
I have searched for a new MMO since leaving SWG at the onset of the NGE, all to no avail. SWG was my first MMO and by far the best. Check my sig for the games that I have tried, none of them can compare to Pre-CU SWG, they all seem really simple and boring in comparison. I pop back to SWG for a month or two from time to time, but the current game is just like all the others except with a Star Wars skin so I always end up leaving again.
If Age of Conan, Fallen Earth and The Secret World dont deliver I will be finished with MMO's for good as I cant seem to recapture the sense of fun I had back in 2003-2005 with SWG.
MMORPG History:
Playing - EVE Online.
Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion.
Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9).
Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
Other than EVE, i haven't been able to play any other mmo since pre-cu for any extended amount of time either.
The only game im looking foward to is WAR, but i have to admit PotBS is interesting and different. Read this review, it sounds like it could be the next game for you sir.
http://www.whitewolfclan.net/pobs/review.htm
I think I agree with what you've said about SWG. It was a truely unique experience. I have tried other mmorpgs since the fall of SWG, and EQ2 has been my favorite since, but none have been as entertaining as pre-CU SWG. I thought Vanguard might be something that would expand into what SWG was once like, but that isn't happening. Now, EQ2, LotRO, and others are becoming too narrowed down into the standard WoW format.
I used to post everday on mmorpg.com. I've lost interest in mmorpgs, though, something I never though would happen. I was so let down by several mmorpgs that have come out lately. I hope some other the newer mmorpgs coming out soon will help to give new life to mmorpgs and renew my interest in them.
Not any MMO can retain my attention since CU&NGE destroyed our home. Pre-cu SWG wasnt my first game, but was the best - even buggy or 'unbalanced' -. I made a lot of friends, maybe in the most far corner of Lok i was just making a BH mission and someone came in a swoop and we were having a long talk, about SW issues, about skills, about what we were about and about Friendship, at last.
And yes, i've checked every classy-linear mainstream MMO (and also DnL and other ones that were so promising)and there is no chance i stay there for more than one month; no need to say how boring, stoopid and narrow they seem to me.
Thinking on giving a try to Vanguard...
Pre-CU SWG Vet here. Radiant. mBH.
(And yes, you forget to add the BH community, i miss it all a lot)
It is a question of fangs.
Nothing is.
And that is why, almost 2 years post-NGE, there are still thousands of players sitting around lamenting the death of the original SWG. It's not that we "can't get over it" for that one game, but that we have nowhere else to go *to*, nothing to replace it with.
If WOW shut down tomorrow, the WOW players could find other, similar games to get their "WOW fix" from -- ones close enough to slake their thirst. But for pre-CU SWG fans, there isn't anything to get our "SWG fix" from, and it's not looking like there will be for many, many years to come at this point.
And that's why we keep coming here and reminiscing... because that game style just does not exist anywhere else, so if you liked it, you're basically hosed, more or less for good as far as we can tell.
C
Yes master ranger was fun wasn't it. As one on these forums said, it was not a profession, it was a way of life. Even as a broken profession Master Ranger was still a blast. It was also one of the most profitable professions around, and one of the easiest ways to make money.
And not just hunting animals. I don't know why, but I found hunting humans great as a master ranger.
I had a few bounty hunters employ me to scout out an area and fix someone's precise location and I could follow them from quite a distance, transmit that to the bounty hunter, tell them what direction they were heading in, etc. It was real time intelligence that a droid couldn't provide. (I.e. I could also identify escorts, what kind of mobs were around the mark, etc.) This kind of created content made ranger a blast for me, and provided a break from hunting contracts. (While they were fun, they became less of an incentive when I had over 100 million credits and a flourishing resource business lol.)
Any other master ranger ever track humans?
The only game im looking foward to is WAR, but i have to admit PotBS is interesting and different. Read this review, it sounds like it could be the next game for you sir.
http://www.whitewolfclan.net/pobs/review.htm
Our guild is already positing POTBS as our "reunion" game. SWG was the game we all played, then when the CU and the NGE came out, we branched off into all these other games (WoW being the prominent one.) While it is still awhile away, everyone is going nuts over POTBS in our guild, because it really doesn't seem like the linear (or at least not like WoW.)
Our city was very well planned, and had a lot of entertainment. Our cantina (The Drunken Imperial) was a frequent meeting place for guildies. Our town hall had a massive meeting room for the guild (always had the exact number of guildmates for chairs plus 5 guest chairs for reps of other guilds), the elder council room (which sometimes had people in ST armor rp'ing as gaurds), and another building served the purpose specifically of conducting meetings with other Imperial guilds.
There was "embassy drive" as I jokingly referred to it, of medium and large houses (large only for our closest allies) of other Imp guilds that had a safe house and meetingplace setup in our city.
We also encouraged overt shoppers to come and buy wares, and even engage in a lil PvP. We had 4 large factional bases in a cross formation around the shuttleport, as well as faction scanners littered around the port and bases. any rebels who came into town were almost sure to encounter problems. What was funnier was the rebels took heart to this plan, and there were constant raids on the bases, where rebels truly acted as rebels do, attacking a financial target as well as a military one. (Attacking customers and our mall, as well as our bases.)
You can't do these sorta things in the linear games that place no emphasis on community.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
so..what was it that made SWG to uber great pre CU again?