Star Wars Galaxies, Prepare for the Jump to Lightspeed!

An Editorial from Beta to Today's Big News

We all remember the promise that was Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). Originally announced in 2001, Star Wars Galaxies was "the" game that was going to put Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) on the map. SWG was supposed to be what World of WarCraft eventually became, and that is the ambassador for the MMORPG genre to the gamers of the mainstream. So the question is what went wrong?

Star Wars Galaxies is going to become the game we all envisioned it being.

The easiest answer to that question is that SWG lacked the direction necessary during its formative years. A player economy that never worked, easy combat, and ridiculously difficult to achieve objectives led to player frustration during the Beta stages of development, and that frustration poisoned the possible success of this title. The bad word of mouth began from the moment the NDA dropped (and in most cases, the word of mouth had been spread prior to the NDA drop), and in truth, the title was deserved of most of the criticisms it faced.

SWG shipped opened its retail servers on June 26th, 2003, and became an immediate success. This is surprising to some who might read this article, but the truth of the matter is at the time SWG launched, it was the second largest MMO on the planet in terms of subscribers (to this day, SWG is still in the top 5, beating notable competition such as City of Heroes). Also unbeknownst to most gamers, SWG has maintained a steady large base of players, and Jump to Lightspeed (the first SWG expansion) surpassed internal projections for sales. Problematically, the issue that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has faced has been the issue of retention. Though SWG has sold extremely well, player retention has been a major issue.

Originally announced in 2001, Star Wars Galaxies was “the” game that was going to put MMORPG's on the map.
What went wrong?

The question for SOE then becomes how do we continue to increase sales which have already exceeded expectations, but also retain the players after they purchase our box? That answer was put to the new VP of the Austin Studio John Blakely and the Senior Producer for SWG Dallas Dickinson. Their answer to the above question is the reason I'm writing this editorial today.

Star Wars Galaxies is going to become the game we all envisioned it being. In short, to quote a SOE employee, “SWG has gone twitch.” You heard it right, SWG, a game more than any other in the MMO genre which begged for twitch game play, has actually gone twitch. This isn’t just a rumor, I just played it hands on, and I can tell you right now, I haven’t been this excited to return to an MMO since I began playing MMORPGs with Ultima Online. Twitch combat is a term generally reserved for games such as First Person Shooters (FPS games), and it is an element of game play that a number of MMORPG veterans have asked after for as long as MMORPGs have been around. SOE has delivered this element.

Unfortunately, a major paradigm shift in the way combat mechanics are governed also leads to a major paradigm shift in the way that character combat classes are setup. SWG is a game that in its infancy was a completely character "skill" based game. About a year after release, SWG shifted to a character "level" based game, and it has now shifted again. Although character levels are still in the game, SWG's classes have been reduced from over 30 to 9. The new classes include a number of the elements of the old classes, and perhaps the biggest news for new SWG players is that one of the classes available right away is a Force Sensitive class, which allows brand new players to begin on a journey to become a Jedi. All of the classes are based on the SWG team's new idea behind character class design, and that idea is that every player in SWG is a hero. No longer will you be "living the fantasy of being Uncle Owen" as one SOE employee put it, but rather, you'll be living the dream of being a hero.

Twitch combat is generally reserved for First Person Shooters, an element of game play that MMORPG veterans have asked for. SOE has finally delivered.

This dream is personified by the 9 available classes. The first class is of course the force sensitive class, and it is personified by a picture of Luke Skywalker at class selection. Other classes include Officer (personified by Princess Leia), Smuggler (personified by Han Solo), Bounty Hunter (personified by Boba Fett), Medic, Commando, Crafter, Entertainer, and Spy. This method seeks to indoctrinate new players into the game, showing them what class they ought to select if they wish to perform in a manner consistent with the "hero" that is personified by the class the player selects.

Your next question is of course, "how does this affect my character?" The answer isn't an easy one. Your character is going to change. You must choose one of the 9 pre-defined hero classes, and you will no longer be able to multi-class. However, once you select a new hero class, you are not forever stuck in that class. All existing characters will be given a re-specialize (respec) item which allows them to respect their character 10 times. There is no time limit on the respec item. It can be used at will. Your character level at the time this change goes live will be based on your current character level, and the abilities for which you have trained. If you have mastered a few professions, you will have the max character level when this change takes place. If you have the bottom box filled in on every profession, you respec level will be low. This works the same way for the usage of the repec item. You will assume a character level of the newly re-specialized class based on the level of the class you just respec'd from.

"Imperial Loyalists wishing for an audience with the Emperor should travel to Naboo ... "

Understandably, a percentage of the player base is going to be upset at this change. Some of you are yelling and screaming already. To those of you that are unsure or are highly upset, my advice is to wait until you experience the changes. Give the game a month and see what you think. I guarantee the first time that you see an officer call in an air strike from Tie Bombers, or the first time you see a Commando lay down some serious firepower with his heavy weaponry skills, you'll realize that these abilities, combined with the new twitch combat, are going to bring an absolutely incredible element to SWG, and could very well change the MMO landscape. No longer will you be clicking attack, spamming specials, and eating a cheeseburger. Now, the Galactic Civil War actually means something, and player skill, as well as character level, will carry the day.

Finally, that SOE is willing to gamble on twitch game play, and that SOE is willing to put in the type of money and resources necessary to pull a change of this type off, shows that SOE is still employing a serious commitment to this title. It also shows that SWG has some serious staying power. The two quotes most often heard around the Austin SOE office today were, "The bottom line is that the changes we are making cost us a lot, but brought about the end result, and that end result is that the game is just absolutely fun to play," and "while this change is sure to upset some, this change had to be made, because the game our players were playing before wasn't the Star Wars we all envisioned." SOE has gone the extra mile to give us what we asked for. They've listened to their players and they've shouldered a huge cost to bring us this change. We owe them at least a month to determine whether this change finally "got it right."

- Mark “Deathstryker” Norris

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