Star Wars Galaxies - Pandora's Box

[Music] a group of Travelers will band together [Music] and a new Jedi Order will be born experience the greatest Star Wars saga Ever Told yours [Music] [Music] out of all fictional universes there's few as iconic as that of Star Wars whether it be movies TV shows books action figures comics and of course video games the reach of this universe is vast and in 2003 it would expand into the world of MMORPGs with the release of Star Wars Galaxies and Empire divided during its rise it would become well known for its unique Community focused sandbox design while its fall is often characterized by game breaking flaws corporate greed and what is widely regarded today as the most controversial content updates in video game history though it was shut down long ago the reasons why remain to be the subject of heated debate among its former players and consequently its Legacy either commended or ridiculed so what was Star Wars Galaxies why does its very mention illicit such emotionally and sometimes sexually charged responses and perhaps more importantly what circumstances led to what many describe as an untimely and avoidable demise [Music] the MMORPG is a genre of game that can be split up into two eras before and after the release that would redefine it the World of Warcraft with its success came a new breed of MMOs and consequently an end to experimentation as the formula for Success had been discovered choose a race and a class create a character and level it to the max through a mostly linear campaign of quests and then begin end game activities such as dungeons raids PVP or erotic role play while this design would certainly prove to be a consistent winner among its player base it also marked a steep decline in paths Less Traveled as most who developed MMOs after World of Warcraft would be unwilling to risk the massive budget that they demanded rather they would simply emulate Blizzard's Crown Jewel to the best of their ability fearing then if they were to stray outside of the lines stagnation and death would follow soon after however today we go back to a time before there were lines to stray away from were experimentation thrived and not because it was Brave but rather because it was necessary uniqueness ironically enough was commonplace Our Journey Begins as early as 1988 where the idea of a massive shared world in the Star Wars Universe was first conceived under the moniker Star Wars online the game would play similarly to the historic Neverwinter Nights the first MMO to transition from the world of text-based prompts to cutting-edge graphics and state-of-the-art Technology yeah people had a lot of imagination back then to say the least the concept wasn't difficult Star Wars at this point was already a juggernaut and to many its video game media would quickly become as iconic as the movies themselves whether it was hopping in the seat of an X-Wing mowing down Storm Troopers Unlocking The Mysteries of the force or hunting down those who did the field was as varied as it was exciting but as great as they were they were all their owned contained experiences that would eventually see an end a completable story or a high score and that was it but what about a Star Wars game that had no end what about one where content is continuously added to ensure that the player always had something new to enjoy and other people to enjoy it with one that had the iconic opening crawl but no credits to bookend it the idea was there and so is the potential but ultimately due to the MMO genre being incredibly Niche at the time and therefore its potential for profitability low the idea of a shared online Galaxy would lay dormant until March 16 2000 where Lucas Arts entertainment announced a partnership between soe and varint interactive in the creation of a new and a very different game in the Star Wars universe [Music] they boasted a whole galaxy of opportunity to uncover its primary draw being to allow the player to live in the Star Wars Universe not all but many other MMOs at the time would be theme park in design a sub-genre that's characterized by pre-built rides content that's handcrafted by the Developers for the players to consume in an orderly fashion such as character levels or a linear campaign of Quests for instance this too would be their initial design started in 1999 but after much discussion would end up being scrapped as they feared cannibalization from their other theme parked MMO EverQuest so instead galaxies would feature a Sandbox design which is more defined by its player made content where they're given a world and tools to do with as they please in order to create their own adventures and their own stories whether they imagine themselves as a Smuggler in armorsmith a Jedi or a stripper they would be offered a virtual life to lose themselves to a World created within a world with a Star Wars Flair they faced a difficult task to say the least as the competition at the time was fierce the Western Market was largely dominated by three titles Ultima Online often considered the grandfather of MMOs would be one of the first to see notable success in throwing thousands of players together in the chaos of the persistent world that would become stable to the genre and following shortly after was EverQuest a direct inspiration from Tolkien a world of elves dragons and Magic would redefine what the genre was at the time its Cutting Edge Graphics one of the other things that made EverQuest the original PC game a big success early on was that it looked so incredible high performance and Rich fantasy setting would quickly earn it the number one spot of the most subscribed MMO shortly after its launch and there is also a hashron's call released in 1999 this heroic fantasy would be praised and remembered for its complex RPG picture and immersive story arcs earning in a sizable player base together these titles would form what is often referred to as the big three that dominated the genre in the late 90s and early 2000s though they would vary in their style and setting they would come to Define what people thought of when they heard the term massively multiplayer online role-playing game these games were expansive persistent time-consuming challenging and at the time expensive the genre was growing but due to these harsh barriers of Entry it remained a niche compared to the more accessible categories of games at the time as intimidating as it was to stare down these Giants the team had an ace up their slave these games were primarily played by nerds and they had one of the biggest franchises in nerd culture history whereas the setting of The Big Three Drew heavy inspiration from medieval fantasy Star Wars of course would provide a stark contrast with its technological sci-fi space fantasy setting it had everything Wonder mystery action and of course incest and teaming up with the dev Studio that was responsible for what was already the most popular MMO would give fans confidence in their experience and with a new series of movies steadily in production thus bolstering the elderly massive fan base of superior prequel enjoyers further one could make a compelling argument that Star Wars Galaxies was the clear favorite to claim the title of the number one MMO as development began and the game grew so too did excitement quickly making it one of the most anticipated games of the decade but a simple fact remained these games were already out and quite successful in galaxies at this point was nothing more than an unproven idea and as the team soon learned transforming an idea into an MMORPG is a process that's anything but smooth and predictable as problems would soon manifest long before its eventual release the game was set out with one intent in mind to let one live in the Star Wars universe but to do that not only must an environment be crafted but also a community leaving a straightforward yet difficult question how exactly does one from nothing create a living breathing Society laughs to answer this question we must first examine how MMORPGs function on a fundamental level every MMO ever made no matter it's setting Focus style or design share one common goal to extract advancement from an online World whether it be as stable as experience levels currency or lewd or even things such as social status and reputation to create this environment three critical elements would be required the player the treadmill and the carrot players within an MMO navigate through the game's various features either through or around obstacles in pursuit of the carrot to obtain levels they must acquire experience and to obtain resources they must extract it from the world and to obtain high-level lewd they must defeat the powerful enemies is the job of the developer to create problems and offer satisfying solutions to craft from scratch and environment with obstacles to overcome and to arm the players with the tools necessary to overcome them with and while a skill developer will be able to create a treadmill that's fun and rewarding an exceptional one will be able to disguise it such that the players are unaware of What Lies Beneath their own feet to transform the treadmill into a fun memorable and even addictive Journey or alternatively you can just sell the player the carrot but before a journey must first come an environment to journey in and the fact that they had this entire universe to work with would become one of their most powerful weapons the only task that laid before them was the transition from the big screen to the CRT to live in the world of Star Wars the world has to feel like a world this itself was daunting and as the solution lays in immersion creatures characters biomes and architecture everything had to give the player the feeling that they were living in a galaxy far far away [Music] foreign [Music] each planet would span roughly 100 square miles traversable through shuttle ports as fast travel and also by land Vehicles such as speeder bikes to travel from one corner to another would take roughly 30 minutes and on foot it would take hours in total they would advertise 10 planets iconic to the universe from Desert Dunes to Lush forests from Frozen Tundras to sprawling metropolises the varied environments were already an aspect that the series had become known for and few would be disappointed that they were unable to live in the biomes that they had been obsessing over for decades prior and for the team not only did size matter but also how they used it while most of this terrain would be quite open and empty it wouldn't be without purpose player housing is often the subject of debate among fans of the genre today the team believed that one of the most effective ways that you can immerse a player into a virtual world is to give them a place to call home but for most MMOs if they have player housing at all they often resort to instant Space Systems as there simply isn't enough room for every player to stake their virtual claim executive producer Richard Vogel would take it quite seriously having had experience in Ultima Online where players could enter and ransack each other's homes one day he received an unmarked and unsigned letter on his doorstep which read how would you like your house broken into and was at that point that he realized that housing fans were [ __ ] hardcore and for Galaxies it was something he wanted to get right as was made possible due to their massive planets galaxies would Ascend beyond the realm of player housing it would have player cities guilds if they chose could create entire communities what would start as a small group of friends building a virtual neighborhood had the ability to flourish into intricate player-made cities gaining access to new buildings and perks to support them as their online microcosm grew players could decorate their homes with hundreds of cosmetic Furniture items armor weapons and loot there were different styles of houses of varying sizes or they could combine together and make One-Stop malls that sold items of all variety The Players would hold many events such as tournaments beauty pageants weddings and much more making it one of the definitive sandboxes representing the genre it would also give galaxies the reputation of the most in-depth and intricate player housing system of any MMO ever even two decades later perhaps evidenced by the fact that Mr Vogel didn't receive any more threatening letters on his doorstep foreign [Music] even more excitement to the environment was the Galactic Civil War tensions between the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire were raging on during this time and as referenced by its subtitle it would play a critical role in its design from their experience with Ultima Online the team felt that optional PVP was the way to go while the standard free-for-all design would cultivate a tense atmosphere for some it would be two tense for many more and it served as a major roadblock for what was then an extremely large yet still untapped casual audience so where exactly is this balance of an atmosphere that's tense and immersive but not overly so that it scarce players away their answer was a system that held three major factions Rebels Imperials or neutral have no strong feelings one way or the other where neutral was effectively and opt out to PVP activities despite this the Civil War and the PVP scene remained to be Central and intense major cities would be controlled by either faction players could build bases within their cities which would need to be defended by guilds or turrets as players of the opposite faction could raid and Destroy them in spectacular fashion you could be wandering around and minding your own business and then all of a sudden an enormous battle would erupt over a faction base where you could choose to spectate or participate this created a tense and exciting atmosphere even for non-participants and immerse them even further into the virtual world they were now living in it was at this point that they had succeeded in their goals they had crafted a setting deserving of the Star Wars universe and with future content updates and expansions they could add more locations more characters and even more planets the sky wasn't the limit and neither were the stars and with the world built they would turn their attention to the next problem the players who had inhabited foreign foreign task this primary directive would serve as a critical navigation tool the goal was clear how to properly navigate to it however was not and begged the question what exactly does it mean to live in the Star Wars Universe while many would liken themselves to a Jedi or a bounty hunter there's much more to the world and to achieve this experience the game would need to look beyond the flashy Heroes who defined the series to expand past the world of bounty hunters Jedis and Smugglers and towards the less bombastic and but still critical roles that made Star Wars Star Wars what resulted was what many describe as the most unique class system the genre has ever known the game's classes called professions would total 32 by release split up into six Basics that you could pick at character creation and depending on which ones you specialized in led into 26 Advanced professions or which the players could mix and match in an unrestricted way there's nothing stopping someone from being a doctor who's also handy with a rifle or a martial artist who could also cook a mean steak as for the professions themselves they would be split up into three roles combat support and crafting combat professions would range in complexity the more straightforward being what you would expect ranged classes using blasters and melee weapons of a variety of different types whereas the more complex for example would be the creature Handler which was designed entirely around taming beasts found in the wild and having them fight for you sort of like a more metal version of Pokemon there are also bounty hunters who had the ability to track down both NPC and player Jedi through the use of droids recreating an element of cat and mouse that defined the series and causing a lot and I mean a lot of drama as Jedi would be the only profession that would lose experience upon death as for supportive professions today the first thought that comes to mind for most are healers and while galaxies would have them they were just one of many while doctors would heal and enhance others there were also dancers and musicians who would spend most of their time in the comfort of a Cantina and through the use of coordinated flourishes would buff and recover the wounds of other players setting out for their next adventure or erratically role-playing with them the writer which ended up being scrapped who would have posted in-game blogs and earned experience for each person who read them mimicking the online influencer culture years before it flourished except without the complementary sex scandals Smugglers could slice weapons increasing their damage or open locked containers while a merchant was more based around Commerce and would gain the ability to hire NPC vendors to sell items to others while they were offline a squad leader was a profession designed entirely around buffing other people and this would even extend to Cosmetics such as the image designer who would be able to alter the appearance of other players as for the game's crafting system it would be rich and complex holding Artisans of all trades armorsmiths and weaponsmiths would be standard to the genre the game's loot system and economy were almost entirely player driven although high-end monsters could very rarely drop useful armor and weapons instead more commonly dropped high quality materials that the Crafters would use to make them nearly every piece of equipment was player made and would degrade with use until they eventually broke while this of course would be a point of controversy it ensured that Crafters would never become irrelevant as those oriented for combat would need a constant supply of armor and weapons many today reminisce of legendary moments in raids and dungeons where a tank saves the day or a Healer carries the group however in galaxies the most well-known player could very well be the weaponsmith who makes the best blasters on the server or the doctor with the most powerful Buffs or a dancer who had the biggest Badonkadonk a tailor would make clothes which were both cosmetic and functional as they held sockets for stat boosting enhancements Droid Engineers could make medical droids to boost doctor Buffs or tracking droids for bounty hunters as for the bioengineer they played God and created creatures for creature handlers and there were also architects who could create Harvesters to gather resources from the world or homes to store them in and these are just a few examples of the rich crafting system that the game offered the quality of all of these items would be determined by the crafter's gear as there existed an entire Stat system based around it as well as by the quality of the resources used which constantly shifted in both quality and location there were people whose entire gameplay experience was just hunting resources the most effective way of giving players the feeling that they're living in an online society was shockingly enough to create an online society where professions of all trades within the universe big or small interacted with each other in a natural and symbiotic way they would operate on the weak Thai interdependent system where people who you may not even know are critical to your survival an armor Smith would require items made by a tailor a politician would require other players to lead and account bed oriented profession would require Buffs from doctors dancers and musicians as well as armor from armor Smiths and weapons from weaponsmiths and in turn they would require high-end materials farmed by the combat professions whether it be combat mood crafting or buffing the entire game would rely heavily on a healthy and functioning online society and would influence player experience in positive ways as a shared goal encourages cooperation this would be Amplified even further through its player Quest system returning to the comparison between theme park and sandbox the quest system of the former is typically very curated each is handcrafted by developers leading the player along a relatively linear and controlled Journey from beginning to end staying true to its sandbox design in galaxies the players would make the quests creating their own conditions and rewards and posting them on a public board to catch the eye of adventurers who would then sign a bond pledging its completion if successful the questor would be rewarded with both experience and credits but on abandonment or even theft the quest Giver had the option to put a bounty equal to the value of the reward on the player's head this would give the community their own system of checks and balances and allowed Good Samaritans to be Good Samaritans and outlaws to be Outlaws one of the core design pillars of galaxies was that it would be the first Star Wars game where you didn't create a hero or villain you became one and this codependency I gave you the feeling that you may run into someone again down the line giving you a basis with which you could build a reputation off of while this may seem to be a more wholesome design approach as with all MMOs the motives were of course Financial in nature the thought process here being that by creating these dependencies the player would become more more immersed and invested to make it such that if they were contemplating and quitting they weren't just walking away from a game they were walking away from a community as such an immersed player is easier to retain which equates to more money made so while the carrot remained the same as any other MMO the treadmill was one of symbiosity this was something more than people just looking for a few hours to unwind this was an immersive online ecosystem and it became one of the game's most defining characteristics however at the end of the day at this point all of this were just words on paper whether these designs were enough to lead the game to success remain to be seen if the players interacted with how they were intended this dream of a living and breathing society would become a reality but if they didn't the very foundations from which it was built on would crumble outside of Asia the standard for what was successful at that point had been said by EverQuest holding roughly 400 000 subscribers leading up to the launch of galaxies and it was this number that the team had set their sights on like all games MMOs are ultimately financially motivated and Star Wars Galaxies was no different it's easy to look at a company name and a logo and judge them as another Cog in the massive machine known as the games industry in this machine another Cog in the even larger entertainment industry but these teams are of course comprised of people they're paid for their work but when many of the teams saw it was of a deeper value the acknowledgment that the efforts of the past few years of their lives weren't in vain to have created a game that made people happy to have been able to experience it and to feel bad for those who didn't to make the new best massively multiplayer online role-playing game and they weren't alone in this wish as anticipation was at a critical level players first laid eyes and gameplay in E3 2001 earning it the best show for PC games as they were blown away at the never before seen graphical quality and work behind the scenes was just as impressive during its development the team even formed their own Jedi Council of sorts choosing one player representative of each profession and flying them out to the studio paying for all of their expenses and in return they would serve as a critical link between player and developer the former keeping the latter in touch with the wishes of the player base magazine interviews would tease players of its various features they made similar strong showings in following conventions and the already massive fan base eagerly anticipating its release would add even more pressure to what was at that point a very exhausted team and with this thought in mind they cast out their hopes and dreams and on June 26 2003 they released Star Wars Galaxies out into the wild with years of investment pay off would they meet the high expectations of an eager crowd with the first foray into the world of MMOs for the universe of Star Wars swim or sink it's not necessarily the clap of thunder in the life-changing event that a lot of people probably hoped or expected galaxies is the most anticipated massly multiplayer game this year so we expect it to be a little disappointed and sure enough we want to convince you to like massively multiplayer online RPGs if you don't like those frequency giving Star Wars Galaxies and Empire divided is a disappointing too out of five foreign galaxies like many MMOs before and after it was rushed in the months leading up to release in desperation the team asked for more time but a stable and finished product was of little concern to their publisher LucasArts and they were told that Star Wars Galaxies seized the light of day by June or it doesn't see the light of day at all I am altering the deal pray I don't offer it any further they asked for a year and they were given one month when the team announced the release date The NDA bound to beta testers were stunned considering the state that the game was in they believed a release year of 2004 to be ambitious EverQuest had a development cycle of 37 months ashran's called 48 and World of Warcraft would take roughly 60 months to complete Star Wars Galaxies was given 33 months a time frame completely unheard of for a game of this scale nearing the release the development team wasn't excited they were frantic knowing that they were releasing an unfinished game to a fan base known for its rabid nature and one with extremely high expectations at that they rushed to the store and secured their copies sprinted to their computers and then waited several hours for the disk swapping installation process which upon completion were greeted with network errors as soe's authentication servers immediately crumbled under the heavy strain as the game remained to be completely unplayable for the first 24 hours of its release however luckily for the devs if there's one thing that the MMO Community is known for its patience and as they worked through the issues they would receive positive words of encouragement from the support of player base [Music] [Laughter] are you serious nah just kidding forms were quickly populated with threats of lawsuits the trail and the occasional death thread here and there when they did finally manage to get in their expectations of a title that would change the face of gaming were quickly met with the reality check many professions that were critical to the game's core design of being entirely player driven were at least unfinished hoping that they could be fixed before the players started to unlock them While others were cut entirely a total of five of ten promised planets were absent as well as the player City system as they simply weren't ready in time and as for the player on quests they had been scrapped entirely leaving the game lacking a quest system and making the primary means of advancing professions and earning money to be through Mission terminals where players could take a mission that directs them to a layer of randomized Critters thousands of meters away which they had to arduously walk to as Vehicles also weren't ready and when they reached them there were no NPCs to encounter nor story to be found just a lair that would spit out enemies until destroyed and once dispatched the player would return to town and rinse and repeat hundreds of times until their templates were finished the simple missions were initially designed to be a lesser alternative to the player run Quest system but with its abandonment they were promoted as the primary means of progressing a character and beyond that the primary means for combat professions to earn credits making it a grind that never ends as a result this led to extremely monotonous and grind the gameplay in a genre that already had a high barrier for entry and due to its monotonous and grindy gameplay and it quickly made it a focus of criticism from reviewers of all Publications in reality uh gameplay and Star Wars Galaxies can be quite repetitive and tiresome just as it is in in other games of this nature the balance would also suffer from design flaws although armorsmiths and weaponsmiths could make a large variety of gear only a few would be useful especially for armorsmiths as the composite set was far and wide Superior to every other set in the game and it would be an issue that persisted throughout much of its lifespan causing issues with not just balance but also Aesthetics and immersion as the game became its own version of the Clone Wars where 80 percent of the player base looked identical to each other and doctors also turned out to be too useful for their own good when people think of buffing today they often imagine maybe a five percent increase here and there something that's not necessary but it's nice to have however in galaxies doctors could increase your stats by several times of their base creating a situation where without them you are near useless and with them you could sell almost anything in the game another point of criticism was the game's powerful macro system many would argue perhaps too powerful as it would be comparable to a light computer programming language due to the fact that it allowed for things such as pauses and recursion essentially allowing players to set up their own 24 7 personal Bots completely within the guidelines of the terms of service the game had dungeon content but most of it was non-instanced meaning that players had to compete against one another for loot which would be rewarded to the person or group of people who did the most damage as a result as the game aged and players started their end game content many would simply set up infinitely recurring combat macros to farm loot from the lucrative buses or popular Farm spots while not even being at their keyboard and when one person did this as players could only have one character per account another slightly more nerdy player would buy a second account in order to outbamage them until an alpha nerd spondon who would buy a third account to claim the coveted loan essentially locking out the rest of the server from that particular end game content foreign as for the combat system itself [Music] this is getting out of hand now there are two of them [Music] it wasn't exactly what people expected from a series touted for its action it operated on the Q system where players performed a sequence of actions and their character would activate them one after the other as a result they would suffer from a severe lack of agency as they would simply watch fights take place before them while this would have its advantages such as allowing one to reload a Mountain Dew and Hot Pockets in the middle of combat without losing BPS it would contribute even further to this overall feel of what viewers described as a game that had about as much action as a person who watches an hour and 30 minute long video about Star Wars Galaxies abilities didn't have cooldowns meaning that combat was very spammy though there would be dozens of abilities for a single profession it was often more efficient to Simply repeat the most powerful from start to finish to make matters worse as had been common for most games representing the genre it was on for giving when the player died in its early stages they would drop all items and credits on their corpse which could have been thousands of meters away and with vehicles yet to be implemented corpse runs could take hours in some cases and what's more the enemies that killed them would still be their corpse camping and now [Music] they were completely [ __ ] naked making it improbable or even impossible to Simply collect their loot so they can log off and release stress by punting small puppies into oncoming traffic all of this contributed to the extremely steep learning curve that the genre had become infamous for [Music] on top of all of this it demanded the highest subscription cost Yen at fifteen dollars the standard at the time said by the big three was ten dollars a month and a 50 increase in what many wrote off as another grindy MMO served as just one more roadblock and a sea of many the overall feedback was that from a series like Star Wars what was expected was story driven action reminiscent of the movie series button what they got was a Sandbox and while sandbox games aren't inferior to a theme park it just missed the mark on what the players were expecting and as they started to quit there would be feedback Trends in their exit surveys that the game was repetitive there wasn't enough to do there wasn't enough story and that it suffered from numerous crashes and network issues one publication would go as far as to name it the coaster of the year as reviewers and fans alike were unimpressed first MMORPG said in the Star Wars universe [Music] but it wasn't all doom and gloom well many realized that it wasn't the MMO that they were looking for many more would praise the player-driven economy and interdependence model even with a number of professions cut as designed combat support and crafting would all work symbiotically with each other succeeding in their goal of making players feel like they were an integral part of an online society for every person who criticized it and as aimless there is another who saw an unknown world to discover seeing it as immersion building and figuring out the game's complex systems as a fun challenge rather than a nuisance and preferring that they created their own experience instead of the developers making one for them one advantage of a game lacking in an obvious Direction was that it generated communication and interaction for every player that was confused there was another who were willing to help him explore and learn about the game's various features and systems together and for one that invested so much into the community many would even consider this to be one of its greatest strengths many of its non-combat Futures were extremely popular as they saw High activity across the board when player cities were eventually implemented each of the game's 22 servers had an average of 12 000 playerouses during its prime character customization at the time was Landmark offering the ability to fine-tune both face and body structure in an era where pre-selected templates were standard this was extremely ahead of its time and it served well in immersing the player even further into the World As for the first time they had real power in making the characters that they wanted in fine detail something that was also supported by its Graphics which at the time were second to none the sheer scope and size of the world at the time was also unheard of in a time of 56k modems MMO releases like all PC games relied on installation CDs each planet was approximately a quarter of a gigabyte so assuming that your parents didn't boot you off by using the telephone in total it would take just over 13 hours to download the planets alone and considering that the game shipped on just three discs which held a total capacity of just 2.1 gigabytes the larger worlds that the Universe demanded were just unfeasible but as they say necessity is the mother of invention and they came up with a solution by creating their own Photoshop like tool to make procedural rules and generating the world around the player as they explored by doing so they shrunk down gigabytes of data into small text files and it's because of this that they were able to create the largest virtual world that the genre had seen at that point all of this Tech was extremely ahead of its time and remarkably enough was also something they created from scratch as it hadn't been done before in the industry While most reviews and feedback condemned a very rough launch they would also note the potential it had yet to harness and recommending MMO fans to keep it on their radar to see if future content updates fix the problems that arose from the launch in its first week of release it would gain 125 000 players outside of Asia putting it at second place behind EverQuest falling short of claiming the title of the number one MMO but also far above what would be considered a failure and in August after a series of bug fixes and content Updates this would grow to 275 000 the drive the universe a player-driven economy and its aimless but free sandbox design would offer something that other MMOs didn't and it was for this reason that it would maintain a workable and steady player base who were eager to pay 15 a month for the ability to live in the Star Wars universe as advertised a universe they thought would only get better as updates and fixes continued to roll in however there's one update in particular that they were interested in just one profession seemed to be missing one that many would later believe to be the reason for the game's eventual stagnation Decline and shutdown [Music] as diverse as this profession system would be it's unsurprising to learn that the most coveted of all would be Jedi the game's advertising campaign would rely heavily upon unlocking their Mysteries but its design and implementation would prove to be the most difficult and controversial yet the game took place between a New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back In other words during a time where due to a certain order Jedi are canonically few in number and so the team was handed a problem Jedi are powerful Jedi are rare and everyone wants to be one they were painted into a corner by the universe's most iconic character type and had raised a question how does one Implement something as powerful as the Jedi into an MMO setting without breaking the fragile balance of a codependent class system what's the power of a blaster compared to that of a lightsaber might be a chef or a Smuggler or a Droid engineer a doctor or an Entertainer when there exists a profession that's so coveted by so many and how can he make it such a major draw in advertising but still maintain the scarcity that the timeline demanded the dev team asked publishing if they could be NPCs only to which they were told no as a Star Wars game where you can't play a Jedi is no Star Wars game they asked if they could change the timeline to an Era where Jedi are not as rare such as after Return of the Jedi but again we're told now as the contract was signed so they asked them if they could make them at least less powerful and bring them in line with other combat professions and once again we're told no as it would break the fantasy that Jedi are kind of op except for those three in Revenge of the Sith that get immediately punked out in like two seconds foreign having been given little room to work with their initial answer was based around the Bartle personality chart which was a way of classifying a video game player base created by Richard Bartle who created the first multi-user dungeon or mud which was a text-based genre of game which preceded the MMORPG upon character creation the player would be signed a list of tasks completely unique and invisible to them while some would be combat oriented such as killing a specific enemy or completing five duels others were more exploratory or social in nature such as visiting every planet or crafting a specific item or cybering with at least four Wookies in order to maintain scarcity this design was largely based on secrecy the player would have no ability to check their progress as they would never be told when they had completed any of these activities even most of the development team would be unaware of how it worked in fear of the methodology leaking to the public the most that a player could hope for at the time would be a written list of instructions and although someone could very well share a list of activities that they performed after becoming Force sensitive it would be of little use to another so with this system Jedi would be rare and because they were rare they could be powerful but they would never be implemented in this way as they simply ran out of time in order to make the deadline the entire idea was scrapped and they had to settle for something much more simple a fateful decision made by an exhausted team at the end of a 16-hour love crunch session in the days leading up to its release Master five professions selected randomly per player and you unlock a force sensitive character sladen which allowed you to make the fabled Jedi as simplified as it was it still remained to be entirely unknown to the player base however and as a result the game in its early stages in a large way was defined by discussions and theories around unlocking them galaxies was a game with sparse curated end game content that would become standard to its theme park counterpart so once players started to fully finish their templates many would struggle in finding things to do so naturally most people were guided towards the only thing left unlocking the Jedi the mystery behind them would prove to Be an Effective marketing strategy 2003 was a period of growth not just for MMOs but also for social media as a whole this was before the days of YouTubers giving their best impression of a blow up doll at some data mined piece of information there wasn't a twitch no database websites nor detailed video walkthroughs available long before the content actually released so the questions were many and the answers were few the genre as a whole just oozed mystery and adventure and for this iconic class to be shrouded behind it cultivated almost an electric atmosphere players were going to extreme lengths to uncover the secret trick in unlocking them and scouring the solar system visiting various Jedi temples in the world or killing Force sensitive creatures and interacting with cryptic But ultimately purposeless NPCs thinking that there were some crucial piece of a grand puzzle some believed that the developers were secretly watching them and taking notes and only giving the unlock to the most deserving it was a game-wide scavenger hunt and the first unlock was hoaxed many times with altered screenshots and bogus geese chases to go along with them however as time went on and players started to lose their patience so too did their publisher they asked the team and just how close they were to seeing the first player Jedi and they calculated the pace at which they were learning and unlearning the skill trees and came up with an answer galaxies would see the first player Jedi in about eight years ha foreign they were not pleased the holidays were approaching fast and in an effort to generate buzz and sell more copies for the Christmas season they suggested the developers to drop hints which in October of 2003 would result in the release of holocrats players could extremely rarely loot these from powerful enemies which upon use would directly tell them what professions to master though only for the first four as the fifth would be silent only sharing a message that the Ancients knowledge of the force will no longer assist them in their Journey the secret was out it had nothing to do with the world and the NPCs who inhabited it and everything to do with professions and holocrons the players were Furious the nerd rage palpable it was panned for its imbalance as non-combat professions were incapable of farming the holocrons themselves and due to their Rarity were forced to pay large sums of money to obtain them it created an element of luck as the professions varied wildly in both time and cost to master some would take days and others months some would take no credits and others Millions because the fifth and final holocron didn't outright tell the player would profession to master the optimal strategy would be to master them in an order ascending from easiest and cheapest to hardest and most expensive and with 32 professions total the chances of guessing the correct one early were low MMOs especially during these early years shared common traits they were all extremely grindy and time-consuming whereas today the industry has shifted more towards activities that reset on daily and weekly timers to keep the players busy back then they instead relied upon extremely long and tedious grinds in order to keep the players with something to do and therefore subscribed but this was a grind so intense that it would instead chase people away once they started to catch on and words spread many would be unable to resist the power of the dark side as they would start dropping professions that they actually enjoyed and grinded out whatever the magic eight ball told them to it didn't matter how much they disliked the profession bounty hunters were now dancing in Cantinas and creature handlers were chopping up their pets to use as ingredients to make food something that MMO developers have learned over the years is that the player must be protected from themselves to make a treadmill that dulls out rewards in a fun and healthy manner is a delicate procedure as in a way the player will fight against it the treadmill must be as entertaining as the carrot is rewarding as a large discrepancy between the two will not stop the player in its Pursuit and sabotage their own satisfaction in the process it's more efficient to Tumble down a flight of stairs to get the carrot that's what they'll do they will cast aside their own enjoyment of what's supposed to be a fun journey in exchange for the hypnotizing Carriage going through any means necessary and it was for this reason that the Jedi system would be a failure whatever the case was there's no more mystery behind the profession people were sabotaging their own enjoyment of the game and consequently player satisfaction tanked ironically enough in Lucas Hearts agreed to gain more subscribers for the first time since its launch they were now losing them as players were now starting to burn themselves out a select perhaps insane few were a bit more persistent however and on November 7th 2003 every player was greeted with a message that Lord Vader had sensed a disturbance in the force and to be on the lookout for suspicious activity foreign [Music] commotion wonder and panic had started to generate in-game on the forums and on third party websites out of hundreds of thousands one player by the name of Monica tasarn performed what is perhaps one of the biggest power moves in gaming history as he walked up to one of the major hubs and whipped out his lightsaber and erected it before the unsuspecting audience bounty hunters be damned he was the first person to unlock the coveted Jedi and he wanted everyone to know it the community erupted in one of the biggest nerdgasms ever witnessed by mankind and also a little side of jealous nerd rage to go along with it some were excited congratulating him on his accomplishment and others extremely Bud mad deeming him to be a friend of a developer who was handed inside information and demanded an immediate ban through you and others were skeptical believing it to be just another one of the many focuses but any doubt of its legitimacy has soon vanished as players were soon able to confirm it with their own eyes it turned into not just a game wide but a server-wide event word spread and players dropped what they were doing and created new characters on his server and traveled across planet to witness an iconic Moment In The Game's history the first player Jedi even earning him recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records he would of course be bombarded with questions prompting him to detail his activities in the game which others of course tried to replicate and unsuccessfully even he didn't know exactly how he unlocked it as he would also include details that were later confirmed to be irrelevant and as time passed and more Jedi followed so too would complaints despite the commotion subscribers continued to wane because the grind was so extreme the team would once again face pressure from publishing to make them even more accessible as they'd still believed Jedi to be the key in selling copies and so through many content updates galaxies changed much in the following months what didn't though was the churn created by the flawed Jedi system they attacked this problem from multiple angles in June of 2004 the previously scrapped Bartle personality chart design would be Loosely re-implemented whereupon mastering a profession of their choice and exploring points of interest across the Galaxy and completing a number of the game's Quest based theme parks they would become increasingly sensitive to the force and eventually be visited by an old man who would tell them the existence of a village that trained people to harness its power though this too would be met with some controversy as he seemed to show up randomly for some players he would show up a few days after completing the necessary steps to unlock him and for others weeks he could show up while you were AFK Auto piloting to a destination and some of the more Casual Gamer filth who took the time to use the bathroom would return to find dialogue in their chat indicating that he came and went but players who were able to secure a conversation were told the location of the village and would gain access to a series of mostly trivial quests which if completed gave them access to the profession and so this problem of Jedi being too difficult to unlock was solved and replaced with another there were now too many Jedi the developers worst fears had come true the process had been clearly broken down into a list of easy to follow instructions and so soon after one Jedi came five and then 20 and then hundreds and what used to be a game-wide event that attracted people across server had now devolved into a European Rave concert to make matters worse there had also been a bug where upon unsheathed from the lightsaber it would cause anyone nearby to blue screen a problem that became increasingly worse as the world became more and more populated with Jedi in a timeline that demanded their scarcity in a game which whole goal is to allow one to live in the Star Wars Universe immersion was absolutely Paramount so something that was once a sight to behold now becoming wholesale would serve as a constant reminder that the world that they lived in was one that made no sense and was becoming more rare in fact to find players who weren't Jedi in the entire game had now seen to revolve around them leaving the normies who preferred the other 32 professions neglected whereas those who wanted Jedi received an entire extravagant multi-phase village with actual quests everyone else would be given the reward of witnessing their communities be overtaken by the glow stick enthusiasts publishing got their wish and galaxies fell victim to the very same problem that plagued in since its Inception Jedi are powerful Jedi are rare and everyone wants to be one foreign [Music] wouldn't be the only source of controversy in a game with plentiful bugs light Bountiful exploits cheats and glitches that players would use to give them an unfair Edge over the competition and in 2004 they had found a way to abuse the trading system in order to duplicate credits they would offer an amount up for trade and the moment that both parties accepted disconnect by doing so the transaction would go through and the disconnected player would receive a refund on the credits offered allowing them to double their stockpile in a game which economy is entirely player driven this would prove to be disastrous those who found the exploit shared it secretly within their circles which quickly spread out of control and by the time that the devs were able to identify and fix it trillions of bogus credits had been distributed on every server and inflation spiked astronomically overnight those who played the game legitimately we're now poor by comparison as the prices of critical equipment such as armor and weapons skyrocketed and missions the primary means of farming credits became less valuable this wouldn't be the only way they suffered however some would say that the moderators were a bit Draconian in how they handled the situation as not only did they ban those responsible for directly engaging in the exploit but also those who had simply received credits through direct transfer unsuspecting Guild mates accepting loans doctors and entertainers receiving credits for Buffs and Tradesmen selling Goods that they had legitimately crafted would be greeted with emails that their accounts were now closed in total across all servers 550 billion duped credits were removed from the game's economy though this would still be just a portion of the total amount the players were Furious they held protests both on the forums and in game storming major townhubs and calling for the immediate unban of their friends but then things turned ugly vehicles and galaxies had low Health had the property of causing large explosions when spawned playing a loud sound and shaking the camera of nearby players due to this potential for disruptiveness it would quickly become one of their most effective tools of rebellion is they would quickly summon and de-summon them perpetually and creating virtual earthquakes in the busiest hubs 5-0 quickly showed and rolled out quarantine protocols before it was cool deeming The large-scale Gatherings to be against the game's terms of service and politely directed them to the forums so that their criticisms could get the proper treatment that they deserved it didn't work so they just sort of started teleporting players into space where no one could hear them cry and while some would be taken down after a sufficient timeout others would be simply forgotten with their characters left stuck in purgatory however the more that they tried to control the situation the bigger the crowd seemed to become so much so that the moderators threatened to shut down entire servers if they didn't settle down which they would follow through with essentially punishing everyone for the actions of a few and ironically enough making the protests more disruptive than any player ever could the whole debacle generated a ton of bad press and ridicule but more importantly due to the game being almost entirely player driven it caused irreversible harm in a game that's so Community oriented losing just one player could start a domino effect and eventually result in losing hundreds and with the economy now annihilated by trillions of bogus credits for many it had passed the point of no return as churn had increased even further thank you time passed and despite Galaxy's troubles the MMORPG genre was starting to gain Newfound popularity this should have resulted in growth in the player base but due to the various controversies they would at most sustain and they sought to change this with release of their first expansion the jump to light speed Star Wars and space combat was a combination as classic as peanut butter and jelly and even before its release Breaking Free from their gravitational prison and taking to the stars in classic Star Wars space shooter action was a highly anticipated feature while many were satisfied with the variety of ground-based combat support and crafting professions it offered some instead imagined themselves in the seat of an X-Wing or a TIE fighter so jump to light speed aimed to satisfy these players offering the opportunity to engage in space dog fights is action-packed and as memorable as previous fan favorites they weren't limited to just Pilots though if one preferred they could also be Gunners or Engineers through its multi-passenger Vehicles beating titles such as Star Citizen to the punch by 20 years or maybe 50. or maybe a hundred who knows but whether it be against tough NPCs or even other players with its PVP support it would add another completely different flavor of gameplay and gain some ground in the action side of things something that many thought it to be severely lacking in and what's more the team working on it came from the popular Wing Commander series giving fence confidence that it was in more than capable hands and the team had high hopes that it would inject some much needed life into what was then a stagnant player base there is just one problem though one that had been brewing for quite some time and even worse one that they would have no control over massively multiplayer online role-playing games have been around for years now but it's taken this long for the genre's Breakthrough hit to finally emerge but World of Warcraft is indeed that game this is just an incredible accomplishment and an incredibly fun game above all else it it's filled with basically everything that's ever been great about them when asking for the true reason for Galaxies eventual demise a variety of answers may be given perhaps the most convincing of which would be the release of what would soon become the most iconic MMORPG of all time Jump to light speed released on October 27th but would be completely overshadowed by the beta of another one that would not only put to shame every other MMO but also redefine the entire genre as fans knew it Blizzard Entertainment who were mostly known for their Diablo Starcraft and Warcraft franchises on November 24th less than one month after the jump to light speed shook the world of gaming with the release of the World of Warcraft foreign [Music] [Music] thank you though they shared the same genre they were incomparable to each other featuring a world of unique and diverse zones each supported by a fairly linear but very effective quest-based system World of Warcraft convincingly ended any debate between sandbox and theme park as Millions would explore the mysteries of Azeroth but that was just the beginning the combat wasn't slow and spammy it was action-packed finely tuned and as intuitive as its skill and talent systems the Gathering and crafting were much simpler than that of galaxies and it was embraced for it between scouring the environment for bounties of ore and herbs and then turning them into usable and helpful items proved to be as simple yet gratifying way for players to invest time into something that may not have even appealed to them to begin with the classes had depth and at the time were relatively well balanced except for shamans shamans were [ __ ] it's art style and World proved to be unique and varied while some were turned off by what they considered to be cartoony Graphics many more saw personality and combined with the fact that it was runnable on lower end computers broke down yet another barrier separating the average person from the game both dungeon and raid-based content would be instanced resetting on a weekly basis gone were the days of marathon sessions of camping bosses and racing competing guilds in order to claim the valuable loot in another landmark change that replaced frustration with fun this combined with its very forgiving nature of handling death did much to dampen what used to be a very steep learning curve and open new doors to a broader audience and helped to achieve the levels of popularity never before seen in the genre it wasn't Flawless by any means but it had a full 60 months of development and it definitely showed and on top of all of this the quality of an MMO is closely tied to its popularity the rewarding nature of building and progressing a character is proportional to the ebb and flow of its player base in a genre that's rooted so heavily in character progression and time investment regardless of the actual quality of the game and its systems if the player gets the feeling that they're just one of few who are playing it is deemed to be dead or dying and therefore less rewarding all here perhaps one of the biggest reasons for World of Warcraft success regardless of its actual quality was its contagious nature and the state of the world when it was released it was more than a game it was a cultural phenomenon that swept the world and because of this slowly but surely every other MMO on the market was shrinking mainly due to its sandbox nature galaxies would actually suffer less than the other more theme park based MMOs that World of Warcraft was more similar to but still for a game this community oriented a declining population would prove to be devastating as well came in and poached players it would leech the life force from galaxies making it just one of the many victims of the new king of MMOs the unfortunate thing was it launched right when wow launched yeah so wow brought the whole industry down not just us every online game out there went down as soon as wild went out wow was like a huge succubus of players went over there and drove into wow and it drove all our numbers down jump to light speed was received quite favorably by those who stuck around but due to its support timing it netted only a few hundred players the team was devastated what was already extremely challenging now seemed insurmountable as Blizzard's success meant their failure for every other MMO Star Wars Galaxies included it was all hands on deck every game in the genre were racing to the bottom and what used to be aspirations for being number one were demoted to a simple desperation to stay alive leaving two questions what was blizzard providing that we aren't and how can we change our game in order to replicate it foreign the answer to this question would result in what is considered by many today to be the most infamous series of updates in MMORPG history they would be known as the combat upgrade and the new game enhancements having hemorrhaged a massive 25 of their subscriber base 2 while the changes were clear and would emulate nearly every aspect of Blizzard's Juggernaut the combat Q system which was the primary focus of much negative criticism would be completely overhauled with nearly all abilities completely reworked and just like wow now operated on the cooldown system to cut down on its spammy nature combat levels would now be publicly displayed and ranged from Level 1 to level 80 and much like wow would determine how powerful a player was giving more intuitiveness and linearity to a game that had previously defined itself as a Sandbox their professions themselves would be drastically rebalanced and change more closely resemble the classes in World of Warcraft and would now follow the trifecta design of tank DPS and healer unarmed would be tank oriented Pike men would specialize in area of effect attacks Riflemen would be high single Target damage and Smuggler would specialize in crowd control and so on the changes were almost a complete overhaul and hope to lure subscribers to return and greater number but one question remained how exactly would the player base react to such drastic changes [Music] the players were Furious what the developers had hoped to be seen as a new and refreshing facelift was instead deemed to be an unwanted complete override of what the remaining few latched on to to make matters worse in a panic to stop the bleeding much like the game's initial launch in 2003 it was rushed out unfinished and buggy leaving the players with a poor impression of an overhaul that wasn't asked for or even desired every change would be the subject of criticism the combat Q system which reviewers initially condemned this boring and slow and spammy was now described as methodical and rewarded those with strategic Minds while the new cooldown based system was deemed to be too hectic forcing the player to keep track of multiple cooldowns and over overwhelming them turning combat from an enjoyable Endeavor to a stressful one they lamented the return of the old profession balance which was now hailed as Innovative and unique even the icons of the abilities were unsafe as nearly every element of the combat upgrade was panned by the outraged player base every system and future that was once the focus of harsh criticism for years was now held onto a pedestal of perfection the fans weren't the only ones to feel as if the rug were pulled out from under them the team was crushed they were put into a position where it seemed that no matter what they did they couldn't win as any change or content update they made big or small failed to move the needle into a positive direction those who remained chose to protest once more as they busted out the big guns the tried and true summoning and de-summoning of damaged Vehicles a true weapon of mass destruction in the chaos of a virtual riot his protests would carry on in every server across forums both official and third party but despite this they were past the point of no return in the meantime World of Warcraft was thriving and the face of a player base that continued to dwindle the team for One Last Time threw a hail Mary into the air a series of changes even larger than that of the combat upgrade [Music] thank you if the combat upgrade was seen to be a facelift what was to come would be a new face entirely November of 2005 would see the release of an update that was somehow even more controversial the new game enhancements though there were many changes they again would share one purpose to emulate World of Warcraft and to achieve this and head to sacrifice sandbox for linearity or has the more jaded fans would describe it had to be dumbed down a quest system much like World of Warcraft was added giving players Direction but restricting their freedom as the game transitioned even further away from its sandbox Origins and towards the now proven theme park standard its entire profession system was broken down into nine classes that much like World of Warcraft would be locked into had character creation and as for the remaining 27 they would be merged into these nine while those that didn't fit this rigid structure were simply removed you can no longer mix and match professions and create unique combinations and non-combat professions we're now completely helpless in combat situations as for Jedi which were initially at the center of Wonder and mystery they were now a starting class and for balanced reasons would only be as strong as their counterparts so other bolts of lightning were flashy they would be equal in power to that of a blaster shot from a pistol or a simple punch from a melee specialist and despite this attempt at balance due to their ease of access and coveted nature it would comprise approximately 70 percent of the population the 36 professions the weak Thai interdependence model and the intricate and fragile social mechanisms that made the game unique were reduced to as infamously described by The Game's senior director kill get treasure and repeat and what's more the combat upgrade was released just six months prior those who stayed were just beginning to accept the first major overhaul let alone and overhaul to the overhaul and it also raised another concern considering how drastic the changes were what would be their quality if they were developed in such a short time window [Music] the players were Furious and this time to new levels so he's President John Smedley required extra security detail as many would take to placing death threats at one point before each speech or press release he made he would require extra security to sweep for suspicious activity as hate swelled to unprecedented levels and he wouldn't be the only one employees of all levels would be ruthlessly harassed by the players becoming victim to doxing resulting in further harassment of they and their family members forumgoers were finding their personal Facebook accounts and photoshopping their faces onto pornographic images and posting them they would post bestiality porn and extreme images of Gore such as people being beheaded as well as falsely reporting csrs for misconduct to their superiors in an attempt to get them fired but the players weren't the only ones who were upset as they had learned from the combat upgrade many of the developers fully predicted that those who remained would react quite poorly to the even more drastic update but as was often the case with Galaxy's development their concerns fell on deaf ears leaving them sandwiched between the ire of the player base and the indifference of their Executives Richard Vogel at this point had left the team for BioWare because he believed that by removing the last shred of uniqueness the game had left in order to emulate World of Warcraft they would lose the last holdouts of their player base arguing that at this point those who preferred the gameplay and design of wow were already playing wow and he was right the player base was absolutely incensed and once again they chose to Rebel but this time in a much more effective way they stopped playing and if you look at the graph coming up [Music] I'm not sure there's much to say it was brutal um we we had projected out what the normal rate of cancellation was in the space of one month we lost 25 percent of the active musics the enhancements were received as anything but they had to issue refunds for their newest expansion the trials of Obi-Wan as these changes were announced just two days after its release it would even receive the attention of the New York Times and Washington Post and once again after reviewers gave it a second look earned the coaster of the Year award for the second time this was the end of the line servers became ghost towns within months forcing shutdowns and emergers and what was once a difficult situation was now hopeless and once again the most bitter pill of all to swallow was that the systems that were once panned were now exquisitely designed whatever the case was it was simply not the game that the remainder of the player base fell in love with by nge's release World of Warcraft was one year old those remaining were the holdouts who preferred the unique sandbox design those who preferred Star Wars Galaxies or rather what Star Wars Galaxies used to be they would never recover from this Exodus as in the eyes of many what was once a unique game had been stripped of everything that made it special and reduced to nothing more than a lesser version of World of Warcraft foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] galaxies would limp on over the coming years as world of warcraft's population surpassed that of small countries they would host just a few servers holding a meager amount of subscribers in comparison and on October 21st 2008 BioWare chose to deliver the finishing blow with their announcement of a new MMO in the Star Wars Universe the Old Republic in order to avoid splitting a player base between two Star Wars themed MMOs nearing its release Star Wars Galaxies was announced to be shut down on December 15 2011. the remaining players did what they did best they protested again but it was to no avail and they would be forced to count down the days to Extinction spending their last moments with characters and friends they had spent nearly a decade cultivating in in-game events was held in the final moments leading to its shutdown game master spawned giant creatures to kill tournaments were held and thousands of voices whooping and hollering in celebration anger and sadness were all silenced at once the servers were shut down the world and those who inhabited it never to be seen again serving as a somber reminder of the double-edged nature of the MMORPG that a genre of game that relies on constant change may not always change for the better and that no matter how much time or money one invests into a virtual world it can and will be taken away if it ever ceases to remain profitable even today the exact reasons for Galaxies shutdown remain to be the subject of heated debate someplace blame that its Origins arguing that its unfinished State and release hindered its ability to gain the contagious popularity that World of Warcraft captured many deemed to be due to the impossible Jedi problem While others believe the development team losing control to publishing to be the true reason for its demise some blame it's volatile and drastic game updates and the rest simply place responsibility on fate itself as in the MMO industry one success means another's failure in truth only Sith steal in absolutes galaxies suffered from a number of issues during its near eight year life and the most likely answer is all of the above I'm dying foreign [Music] with any end comes New Beginnings From the Ashes left behind a Rosa Phoenix in the form of community emulator projects of the game in all of its stages seeing a niche but passionate community of people who keep the torch lit while many markets Legacy many more celebrated something that's perhaps only possible due to its innate ability to bring people together and even nearly two decades later in modern MMOs a Keen Eye can spot gameplay elements that were first innovated by none other than Star Wars Galaxies to live the life not as a hero of Destiny but instead as an everyday citizen has become a genre of its own though in the end it may have fallen short in its goals this failure is only a small part of a long and intriguing Story one that holds fond memories dramatic spectacles and sad farewells the game today is remembered for its player-driven economy its landmark tech invented at record-breaking Pace its intricate crafting and player housing systems and it's passionate if not fervent Community despite its demise its tagline for many lives on evoking a warm yet regretful feeling of something that has been but is no longer for some a fleeting interest for others a memorable adventure and for the rest the greatest Saga Ever Told [Music] I know things no one knows I'm left with these weird feelings because it was so painful and so demoralizing okay I'm gonna put this out on our our side here there's Q he is setting up the display say hi take challenging missions and even Advanced to the level of Jedi Ary [Music] that's it Lucas arts and Sony Online Entertainment have decided to shut down their long-running massive multiplayer online game for good selling first 12K is set three hours long yeah let me get my Droid out [Music] recently the MMOs Star Wars Galaxies underwent a dramatic change in gameplay that resulted in for what else cries of outrage from foreign [Music] so fans tend to have a really high level of passion the next minute an eagle Empire had the Rebellion you realize there's a segment of players that obviously are going to be resistant to change and we experienced that in the past when we make enhancements like these in general what's really interesting about that is that a lot of them come back after they feel like okay they vented their their concerns they've proven they're the Uber nerd that they want their friends to believe they are and now they're ready to play a fun game and so once they try the actual enhancements a lot of them decide that yes it actually is an improvement and they stick with us no don't blame yourself it's not your fault but you know in the end this is about giving life to a world that is your own and that's really what galaxies was about so for me that's greatly rewarding to know that the people on the other side of that keyboard were having this very sort of interactive experience that they're going to remember for a long time [Music]

Channel: MadSeasonShow

Views: 307,259

Keywords: madseasonshow, World of Warcraft, star wars galaxies, jedi, swg jedi, what killed star wars galaxies, swgemu, swg nge, video game documentary, video game review, star wars galaxies documentary, why did star wars galaxies die?, swg 2023, star wars galaxies 2023, star wars galaxies gameplay, swg pvp, precu, jedi killed swg, mmo documentary, rise and fall star wars galaxies, mmorpg, mmo, why swg died, swg, Star Wars Galaxies an empire divided, star wars, video game retrospective

Id: RW22doSoe5w

Length: 90min 34sec (5434 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/cramduck]

The prospecting, mining, and crafting systems in that game were so much damn fun. Especially with the quality variations of final products.

[u/slayer_ornstein]

I was quite young when this gem of a game came out. I remember my parents buying a copy of this and the strategy guide that was the size of one of my school textbooks. I would spend a stupid amount of time before the game released thinking about which class I was going to try, and which species my character was going to be - I had never felt so excited to exist in a world, especially considering how this was Star Wars and I was such an absolute dork about anything SW related. It was a blast. I may have never made it into the more elite classes because of how technical and “adult” the world was, but I cherished every experience I had, no matter how small. Speeder rides on the desert sands of Tatooine. Buying my first ticket to board a ship to Endor. Hours spent interacting with people in cantinas, bazaars, and all over the major cities. Years later and I don’t think I will ever have that same experience. But therein lies a silver lining; those memories will forever be with me.

[u/beIIe-and-sebastian]

Probably one of the best MMOs ive ever played.

Was part of the closed Beta program and still have the beta CDs somewhere.

[u/sexygnome]

I was there on launch day. As buggy as it was, I had so much fun with this game.

[u/Slave35]

I played SWGemu for a year. I was an armorsmith, one of the best. Generals and kings would make the pilgrimage to my shop to beg me to craft them composite armor for a million credits or more. I scoured the galaxy for the best components. I stayed up late to snipe auctions on rare materials. I made sooo much money. I would craft mythically good starter gear like chitin armor, light as a feather and stronger than steel, give it a color theme like black and gold so they looked like insects, and give it away to newer players. It was a blast.

[u/TekJansen69]

I actually get "homesick" for that game. I loved it so much!

[u/GreatWhiteNorthExtra]

This seemed like such a no-brainer to be successful.

Wish they would try again

[u/Jewellious]

This is one of those lightning in the bottle video game moments. The dawn of the MMO age, pre-internet guides, pre-metas, pre-streamers. It was such fun moment. The game size seemed infinite back then. Everyone just played what/how they thought was fun, completely lost in the scale of the game.

[u/EndsLikeShakespeare]

One of my favourite class systems until the revamp. Absolutely loved mastering I believe Scout and maybe Sniper or something to be a BH. I had made friends with someone who had a store in the desert. I made my best Kyle Katarn look. Really miss it.