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ITEM DESCRIPTION IS FALSE, THEY'RE DECEIVING NEW CUSTOMERS & VETERAN PLAYERS ALIKE - DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 30
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

SWG *used* to be the greatest game ever known to man, I swear it. It was everything I wanted in a video game, as a true Star Wars fan since the age of 7, and I'd tried all of the other SW titles with disappointing results. SWG however was GREAT. It *WAS* great. All good things, it seems, come to an end.

On Nov 15, they issued a massive new patch which utterly changed the game, to its very foundations. This patch was kept secret from the playing public, even from veteran players, until two weeks before it went live. Actually, they announced it ONE DAY AFTER we all got charged for our pre-orders of the ObiWan expansion (digital download), which among other things promised us great new changes to professions like Creature Handler and Ranger... We all bought the expansion and one day later, they announce the new patch, which ELIMINATED Creature Handler, Ranger, and most other professions. Our previous 32 professions were distilled to NINE, and some like Creature Handler (which many players loved) were axed from the game completely.

32 professions reduced to 9, and you can no longer change your skills template! You *used* to be able to learn new skills or surrender learned skills as your interests changed. This was the best thing about SWG, how you could create a unique character and continue evolving them forever. (A lot of players have been using the same characters since the first ay of SWG two years ago, and loving it!) But now, once you choose 1 of the 9 "iconic" professions (you can be like Luke, or be like Han, etc), you're locked in. There's no changing it later. And you can't choose which skills you learn next either, like we could before. Now you just "progress". Even the free-spirited, "create your own destiny" open-ended freedom of the original SWG is gone... now you choose your profession, and move through it as you gain levels, until you reach the end. Then you're done. You can't undo your training, or learn anything new -- you can either stay done and never advance, or you can delete your character (and all their belongings) and start over.

In essence, they took an open-ended unbeatable game and made it into a beatable game. You can finish it now. The magic is gone. Now it's just another Star Wars videogame.

And it's LOADED WITH BUGS. This game has had unfixed bugs since its inception. Sony releases new versions with new bugs rather than fix an older system. (There's a very popular forum on the official SWG site, where you can read many first-hand user experiences and feedback).

THIS IS NOT THE GAME IT WAS. It's not the game advertised either! YOU DO NOT HAVE THE CHOICES listed here! They've changed it! They've ruined it!

On my server, HUNDREDS of veteran players have already quit in protest. Previously thriving cities are now wastelands. You can stand in the busiest starport now, where once you might have seen 50-100 players gathering, and now there might be 3 or 4 players... wondering why nobody's around anymore.

THIS GAME IS OVER. It's sad to say it. The servers are losing people at a phenomenal rate now, and the game itself is BROKEN! It's bugged, badly! 90% of the quests are still broken 3 weeks after publish!

WARNING! This is not SWG, they killed SWG on Nov 15. This is not an mmorpg like before! They've turned in into a FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER!!! Argh!!!

A total disappointment. Total disappointment.

The Biggest Blunder of a Home Run Movie License, Ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 30
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The "Starter Kit" from Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts is capable enough getting you started in the online world of Star Wars Galaxies.

The problem is once you get into that world you aren't left with any compelling reasons to stay.

A brief history: Star Wars Galaxies has been out for more than two years. In that time the developers have fumbled around with unwanted game changes that have positively alienated their player base and fostered an amazing amount of ill will. Truly the players that continue to stick with this smoking dung heap have more creativity and love for the cannon than all of the developers put together. I have been with the game from beta through November 15th. It is an absolutely accurate statement to say this game has been in beta from 2003 and continues to be in beta. The game has gone through so many massive revisions and changes that what once was, has no bearing on what actually is.

On to the NGE (Starter Kit) itself. The "Starter Kit" a tool Sony and Lucas are using to lure new players in to a complete change in game play. The NGE (New Game Enhancements) has removed most of the depth of play. Most professions have been completely removed (from 32 to 9). If you were a player that perused one of the 23 now obsolete professions you were forced to "respec" into one of the nine "iconic" professions. Further, the remaining nine professions have zero individuality, with the exceptions of "Trader" (a crafting profession) and "Jedi". The Jedi profession is self-explanatory. The crafting professions have been reduced to producing items that players don't want, nor need. This, of course, begs the question "Why bother?" Most crafters are still trying that one out.

The User Interface has been completely gutted and replaced with a (in theory) simple to use interface. Simple does imply better as evidenced here. What veteran players (and new alike) are left with is a quirky, clumsy, poor executed interface that will have you reaching for the Advil in record time.

Game play has been reduced to a tunnel carple syndrome inducing click fest. Targeting is nearly impossible. To "attack" your target you must get the mark under the small reticule, follow it with the clumsy mouse movement and click away. What fun! Except that it isn't! Ranged professions are vastly overpowered and the one remaining melee profession (Jedi) is reduced to chasing their targets with a mouse VIA clumsy implementation of the new UI, frantically clicking (most times) on thin air.

Other observations: The NGE was announced two weeks before it hit the live servers. Keep in mind this is a massive, complete change of every aspect of the game subscribers have been playing and paying for over two years. This massive, sweeping, dramatic change was developed in secret. To further aggravate the situation, the developers continued to talk of existing profession fixes and enhancements while knowing most of the discussed professions would no longer exist. Many of these professions have been utterly broken since launch. Most professions - many players' characters have played these professions for their SWG tenure - were completely removed. The Jedi profession, before the NGE, was very, very time consuming to obtain. In the new system, it's a starting "iconic" profession. Many players spent many months to be like Luke, only to have their time investment mitigated to a starting profession.

Conclusion: The Starter Kit is a nice piece of software in and of itself. However, what it's introducing you to is not worth your time.

Other thoughts: SOE has developed a well-deserved hatred from many thousands of gamers. There is really nothing else like it on the web. I am convinced some of Blizzard's success with WoW is due to their better community relations. That is, many players (this is not a small number) simply wont patronize a SOE game because of their history of maltreatment of paying customers. The SWG forums are in a state of utter riot. Moderators are removing posts as fast as they can. Many subscribers have been banned for voicing their (negative) opinions. Any criticism of the game is immediately removed, which leads to further outrage and more postings. SOE has gone so far as to prevent non-subscribers from accessing the forums in an attempt to control negative "press".

This will go down as one of the biggest gaming blunders of all time. SOE will wear this around their neck for a long, long time.

They deserve it.

Sad to see what sony has done

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 24 / 27
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

A long long time ago I entered the beta for SWG. I met some great people and had fun for almost 18 mos. I was one of the first jedi on my server and still remember the amazing feeling I had when that happened. I could go on and on about how wonderful this game once was.

Now Sony has completely changed the game and created a mockery of what was once fun. I should warn you that the box itself is a lie when you are reading it. Many of the things like 30 professions are outright lies and other things are highly misleading. The game you buy is not the game that is now on the servers. The interface is poorly conceived and clunky. The so-called quest system is constantly being dumbed down and will soon require no effort at all.
Avoid sony, avoid sony's games and above all put your 15 dollars into something more useful like 5 chia pets. I promise you'll get more excitement from it.

Star Wars Galaxies - 'An Empire Destroyed'

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 25 / 29
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Back in 2003, an exciting new game in the sci-fi genre of MMORPG was released: Star Wars Galaxies.

Although the game was basically a beta release, full of bugs, I (and many, many like me) got stuck in to this game. It was great, it was a fully immersive Star Wars environment. You could build a character that had a mix of professions (32 were available at the start, including exciting professions like smuggler, bounty hunter, etc etc).

The greatest strength of SWG was the depth and complexity of its profession system. You could mix and match. If you got tired of combat, you could make millions as a crafter.

With the JTL (Jump to Lightspeed) expansion they added in space combat (which of course should have been there from the beginning). Space combat was OK, but it got old very quickly. The ground based game was much more fun and less restrictive than the space game. In space, you are limited to 10 or so 'sectors' which have a finite site. It's a bit like being on the surface of a 3d planet rather than in the huge expanse of space.

Now, along the way, we learned how to become Jedi. Jedi was not a starting profession in SWG. It took about 6 months of solid game play (or a year of casual) to unlock your Jedi character. Then you had a long, hard grind to make it to the top of the Jedi ladder, being hunted by player (yes player!) Bounty Hunters all the time.

It was a hard graft, but it was very much worth it. Jedi were the power in the game, and a great deal of fun to play.

That was all before the dark times, before the Empire of Sony and Lucas Arts:

With the next expansion ('Rage of the Wookies') came a much-awaited revamp of the combat system. Like everything else done by this seller (Sony Online Entertainment), the product was rushed, it was poorly written and full of bugs. To be honest it was barely a beta release. A huge portion of the player base left due to the 'tinkering' by SOE. Jedi were much reduced in power, and the combat was dumbed down to a certain degree.

However, it did keep the feel of the original release, and we stayed in the hope that SOE would finally get round to fixing all of the bugs and problems.

Now, back at the start of November, SOE released another expansion, 'The Trials of Obi-Wan' set on Mustafar, the volcanic world at the end of RotS.

The day AFTER they released the game (ie when we had all paid), they announced a COMPLETE REVAMP of the entire game. This is the game you are buying. Gone are the 32+ professions of the original. Now you have 9 'iconic' professions for the ground based game (Jedi is now a starting profession as well). The combat interface has been changed from what was basically a real-time turn based system to a 'click' based system. Oh yeah, and the interface now looks identical to WoW (World of Warcraft) for some reason.

The problem is, most of the code and items and mechanics of the game are still based on the old system. As usual, everything was forced upon the loyal community with NO WARNING WHATSOEVER. It has barely been tested, and what testing it has had seems to not have reached the developers. It is a terrible mixture of a first person shooter and a MMORPG. Huge swathes of the player community have tried this new game, and then cancelled their accounts. Many of the lower population servers are now like ghost towns.

SOE and LA have destroyed what could have been the best MMORPG of all time. It fails in all ways.

DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!

If you want quest-based MMORPG, try World of Warcraft, or City of Villains.

If you want first person shooter action, or if you want to be a Jedi, get Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Oh yes, and the general consensus within the game is that it has less than a year before they close it all down. This is the final gambit for SWG I am very sorry to say.

If you buy it, don't say I didn't warn you! :-)

Complete Garbage

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 25 / 29
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game has been active for over 2 years. The game since launch still has over thousands of bugs. They recently did 2 huge game re-vamps. The first one was the start of the fall of the game. Massive amounts of players left the game during the first revamp and now this second revamp that just occured caused everyone in the game to leave. This is a MMO and there is no one to play with online since everyone quit. The game is unplayable due to bugs, no content, the professions are broke and unbalanced. It's a waste of money buying this game. I rather play ToonLand Online. That game is more fun.

BAH!!! LEAVE THIS ALONE!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 25 / 29
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

No good no good no good. I can't hit anything!!! I keep clicking my mouse to fire and i cant find a way to make another key fire or in a way autofire. When i was on the game i say tons and tons of jedi. When my friend told me about this game a year ago he said he was working to get jedi forever, was everyone??? He also said they were strong but i saw some battling and the jedi went down first!!! My friend also quit the game saying they just changed everything and thats why it sux. Everyone has left the game...I had no fun playing it. Don't buy this game if i could give it negative stars i would.....Condolences

Horrible Customer Service

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 23 / 26
Date: November 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Sony Online Entertainment makes great games when they are original, such as Everquest, and even Everquest 2. But every intellectual property they aquire, from The Matrix to Star Wars - they kill it.

Honestly how can you ruin a game based on something as immensely popular as Star Wars? Especially so soon in the afterglow of the Episode III DVD release?

SOE shows you how - through doing the exact opposite of what you are taught in every Customer Service class you will ever attend.

1.) Lie to the customers

SOE has lied, constantly, as it relates to changes being made. A recent lie was advertisements for the latest expansion to Star Wars Galaxies - and promises of new items, etc. for certain professions. 1 Day after charging customers who pre-ordered the expansion - charges fresh on the credit card bills - SOE announced changes to the game which ELIMINATED 21 professions and forced you into one of 9 professions which were broken horribly.

This was actionable enough for a lawsuit that they were forced to give a refund to customers - but of course that took 2 - 7 weeks to process.

2. Don't listen to the customer.

Customer asks for a bug fix? Offer him an expansion for the modest sum of $30. Want the bug fix bad enough? Fork over the $30 or we won't make it. Character bugged? Spent 3 years building him up to the level he's at? Delete him - we can't be bothered to fix him.

3. Call every nerf, everything that changes in the game, etc. to make it more "Star Warsy".

"Star Warsy" is a madeup term crafted in the SOE spin department. This term was generated in order to say "I was making things more Star Warsy" instead of being forced to say "I was just making 90% of the items you've aquired over the past year worthless."

Not only do they nerf the players to the point of unplayability - they leave the enemies stronger than ever.

I lose fights to cavemen armed with sticks and wearing loin cloths even though I hit them 50 times with a lightsaber - barely leaving a scratch on them.

STAY AWAY.

SWG = RIP, NGE = Next Grand Exodus, SOE = Screwin Over Everyone

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Avoid this game like the plague.

I'll even go as far as saying this game has driven me to the point of completely boycotting any Sony and/or Lucas Company, permanently.

There's so much more I could say, but honestly, it's simply not worth my time to tell you, or your time to listen.

It's simply THAT BAD.

Sinking Ship

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: November 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been playing an entertainer as long as I have been playing this game (since Sept '04) and it seems like devs constantly ask for your opinions, then give you either the opposite of what you asked for or some perverted, skewed version. Instead of the wonderful diversity that once was SWG, we now have a clone of EVERY OTHER MMORPG on the market. Save your money, spend it on an MMORPG that's not a sinking ship.

The Greatest Game Never Made

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: November 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Star Wars Galaxies had not only one of the most lucrative licenses ever (a Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game set in the Star Wars Universe) but the game also had one of the most innovative and original foundations for a game that I had ever seen. Designed around the idea of a creating a true online community. The game was originally made with 32 separate professions. Commandos, Droid Engineers, even Entertainer Professions like Dancer whose purpose was to relieve Battle Fatigue, a form of shell shock that gradually wore down your character as you're engaged in combat. To cure yourself, you would listen to a player Musician or a Player Dancer.

Since it launched, Galaxies has been changed and revamped in so many ways that it is almost unrecognizable from its original form. As I mentioned the original game was released in format designed where players would get their items, equipment, and healing all from other players. There were no NPC vendors, except for tickets between shuttles, and you could count on your community for whatever you needed. Unfortunately, most of the minds for this original amazing system left the game shortly after its launch, and the rest eventually followed, leaving the game unfinished. With its visionary creators missing, the developers were replaced by people whose only experience is with cookie cutter games, and had no experience with the game that was originally launched. Since its launch, the crafting and entertaining professions have been marginalized to the point where their just decorative. The original skill system was replaced with the overdone level system. The number of professions has been reduced from 32 to 9. (Excluding Pilot and Politician) The innovative skill tree system, and the ability to master, or even dabble in multiple professions has been removed; you're now permanently locked into one profession. The scout and creature handler professions have been completely removed.

Even if you aren't aware of the game's painful history, there is still no reason to buy this game. Firstly there is no real feeling of Star Wars in this game. Though Star Wars Continuity always takes a beating in games based around it, this is by far worse then I've ever seen. The game is set between Episode IV: A New Hope, and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, however there's dozens of Jedi, Player and even NPC in some places running about all over the place. Player Jedi are pitifully weak, and yet, still numerous. The game is set during a pivotal point in the Galactic Civil War, right after the first Death Star's destruction, yet there's no feeling of war or conflict. The Empire and Rebellion come off as competing fan clubs, rather then two factions at war with each other. There's wookiees in Clone Armor, Ithorians with Guns and Armor, and Jedi running around everywhere. Feels like someone stuck a bunch of Star Wars Games, books, and movies into a blender and hit Puree.

Even if you're not into the Star Wars thing, the game simply isn't any fun. It also by far the most buggy, glitchy game I have ever played. All MMORPG's start out fairly buggy, do to their complexity, however this game is 29 months old, not including the time it spent in development and beta. There are literally hundreds of bugs in this game, in every system, several of which have existed since beta testing. About half the specials throughout the combat professions do not work; there are tons of quests with busted links, and dead ends because of bugs. All weapons do the EXACT same damage. Currently the game is setup where you level decides your damage, you weapons stat honestly have no effect, good or bad, on the damage you do. Most of the stats, such as strength or agility have no effect on what you do. There's tons of broken items, NPC's and system's left over from all the massive changes. Even today, almost two and half years later, it actually seems even more unfinished, laggy, and riddled with bugs then at launch.

The game itself has been made pitifully simple in this late date. You're locked into one of nine Ionic professions from the start now. Jedi, Medic, Commando, Spy, Bounty Hunter, Officer, Entertainer, Trader. From there, there's no way to go, but up, and that's' it. There's literally no diversity amongst not only players of the same profession, but even several of the combat professions are painfully similar. If you're a L90 Bounty Hunter, you have the exact same moves and abilities as another L90 Bounty hunter. There is no talent system to focus on certain aspects, there's no choices to enhance certain abilities more then others. Combat itself is very simple. You click and hold the left until either it or you die. There are specials, but most of them don't even work, and the one's that do are usually not worth it.

Progression through your profession from level one will be quite impossible to the final level at this current point. For the combat professions you need a grand total of 18,066,900 Experience points to progress from level 1, to Level 90. (The highest level) At level 80, killing a NPC, who's at the same level as you, solo, will grant you about 480XP. Keep in mind that's if you're already at level 80, it's MUCH lower at lower levels. There are currently quests that grant XP for the new system, but only to around level 30. After that, there are literally no mid level quests, and the only high levels quests are part of an expansion you will have to purchase separately. Even then, if you were to do EVERY quest in this expansion, you will likely only earn about 5 million XP, that's if you do EVERY quest, all of which are designed around +80 Level characters.

The game has three expansions, first is Jump to Lightspeed, which comes free with this Starter Set. Probably the greatest remaining feature in the game, you can choose to be a Rebel, Neutral, or Imperial Pilot. And you'll do quests to progress through the ranks (As well as some major grinding). Ships are quite customizable; they all have pre-set MASS limits, which decide how many items you can load onto it. You may load a massive blaster, but if it weights 44k Mass, and your ship is 90k, you won't have much room for other parts. Smart ship management is important to be a successfully. Unfortunately, after achieving Master Pilot, there is no content for Master Pilots, and despite being out for over a year, the game's developers have not suggested adding any additional Jump to Lightspeed Content.

The Second Expansion is Rage of the Wookiees. You'll have to purchase it separately for 25$ as a Digital Download from SOE's website, or purchase "Star Wars Galaxies: The Total Experience". This let's you travel to the wookiee home world of Kashyyyk, or even above it in a separate space sector. There are some very fun quests in Rage of the Wookiees, however to get to almost all of them, you'll have to complete a long line of boring unfun quests. Such as Kill X amount of Y, or, deliver this, or talk to this guy. And some areas that's all there is to do, such as the Etyyy hunting grounds. You're told to kill 15 of a certain animal for their teeth, you kill them and come back, you're to go back there to kill the same animal as before, but this time for their horns. This makes up about 90% of the quests in the hunting grounds. Though a lot of games require you to go though simple quests like this to progress, this is a separate expansion you pay for, in addition to your subscription fee, and it seems annoying they've filled a lot of it with such meaningless quests. Most of the rewards are rather disappointing; you'll get novelty items like a picture of General Grievous, or weapons that are no use to you.

The last expansion is "The Trials of Obi-Wan", which is ONLY available as a 30$ Digital Download. ToOW takes you to Mustafar, which for some reason; Ben Kenobi is haunting instead of helping Luke. Unlike RoTW, there is no space zone, or JTL content. There are far fewer rewards and interesting areas to explore as well. To meet Obi-Wan you'll have to complete a certain 9 quests, which all have to do what's going on with the planet. However no more then other quests, but apparently, only a certain nine will do. Kenobi himself only has three quests for you, two of which are incredibly simple and easy for a high level player. The other story arc of interest is one about Hk-47, a character from the game Knights of the Old Republic. Apparently SOE has moved into destroying GOOD Star Wars games, as well as there own. Apparently his mind is in a 4000 space ship, which you transfer to a War Droid Factory on the same planet, because apparently your character is very dumb. HK goes onto to raise a massive robot army in no time at all, ready to blow up the entire universe. His quests are painfully over complicated in terms of what switch you're suppose to hit, or what button you should press, overloaded with annoying over powered droids. There actually seems to be no reward for this quest either, only loot from the mobs along the way, and with a full group of players required to complete it, several people are going to be left out in the process.

I've been playing Star Wars Galaxies since it launched back in June of 2003. I've experienced every aspect of the game as long as I could, try as many quests as I could, meet as many people as I can. But all that is coming to an end, slowly, but surely I've watched the game wither and die, and with its most recent game breaking changes, I'm left with only one or two friends, who are ready to quit, and nothing more to really do. I honestly believe this game may even be closed down sometime next year do to falling subscriptions numbers.

What has happened to this game really is a tragedy. Nearly thirty months ago, I was a starving artisan on the streets of Kor Vella, desperately trying to make my way to the rank of Droid Engineer. I remember thinking "This game is really buggy and unfinished, but it's also very original, and has the foundation to be the greatest game ever, I'm sure one day, in a year or two, once they've ironed out the bugs, and balanced it, it's going to be a massive hit." That day, never came.

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