As the installer worked its way through the three installation cds, I gave the game manual a read-through. The game was a complete departure from anything I had ever played before. There were no levels in the traditional sense, only skills that could be trained up as you gained experience from using those skills. The game world didn’t consist of simply one world, but instead had 10 different planets to explore. The game was also different in that there was no end, no path to follow. You simply logged in and did whatever struck your fancy. Want to be a bounty hunter? Be a bounty hunter. Want to open a clothing boutique? Become a tailor and do it. Want to be a Jedi Knight? Well… that was a bit more complicated and never really seemed to be worth the effort to me.
So once the game was installed, patched, updated, tires rotated, etc, I began working on my first character. Berlinetta began his life as a Human scout on Corellia but before long, other skills and traits began to emerge. I wanted to be able to use a wider variety of pistols beyond the CDEF pistol I started with, so I took Novice Marksman and began training up the pistols line of skills. I started working on my character’s look and started hitting the market and the local shops but it seemed like I could never find exactly the items I wanted in the colors I was looking for. So then I added crafting skills and began working toward tailoring as well. Eventually Berlinetta ended up being both a Master Pistoleer as well as a Master Tailor.
The Jump to Light Speed expansion was released and things just got more awesome. Space combat greatly increased my enjoyment of the game. There were easy credits to be made selling salvaged parts, in addition to the standard fees for completing the missions themselves. The only major problem I had with the system was the faction-locking of ships. You had to choose Rebel/Imperial/Freelance and each came with a specific set of starship certifications. It also had an interesting effect on player interactions. Now instead of waiting 5 to 10 minutes for a shuttle, you could take your own ship from planet to planet instantly. Before, starports were places where people would gather waiting for the shuttle. There were buffs being given out, commerce taking place, groups being filled, etc. It helped to get players into the action a bit faster, but I can’t help but feel that something was lost as well.
A year after I started playing, the game experienced a major shift, the CU or CURB (Combat Upgrade and Re-Balance) that was intended to both balance out the powers/abilities of the different professions and also brought the previously hidden player combat levels into the foreground. Changes were also made to the way buffs and armor worked. Previously, any character could wear any armor given the right amount of buffs being applied to offset the encumbrance. Health buffs that allowed just about any character to attain enough hit-points to take on all but the strongest opponents were dramatically reduced. Experience points were now given out by formulas based off of the difference in player combat levels vs target combat levels as well. All of this was to address both the concerns of customers with the old system and to pave the way for the next expansion (Rage of the Wookiees) that came out the next month and contained more level-based content in a more traditional MMO style rather than the pre-existing sandbox environment.
The CU version of the game, while differing from the original gameplay was still a very enjoyable game for myself and others, once you got past the learning curve of the new combat. But something else lurked on the horizon. It would seem that while they continued to tweak the game’s current system, they were also working behind the scenes developing not just the next expansion but in reality an almost completely new game. On November 1st of 2005, the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion was released for sale and I, like many others, purchased it. Two days later, the penny dropped. SOE (Sony Online Entertainment) announced the NGE (New Game Enhancements) update due in two-weeks. The combat system changed again, player professions dropped from 34 to 9. Jedi became a starting profession, which angered many who spent much time unlocking the profession under the old system. The game was given a focus on questing to gain experience and sandbox gameplay was nearly completely destroyed. Players yelled, organized in-game protests, wrote letters, cancelled subscriptions and generally did what they could to make their displeasure known. While SOE acknowledged that things could have been handled differently, they maintained a resolve to continue along the game’s chosen development path. I still played, I got used to the changes over time and even had some fun playing the game as well.
Over time though, I found myself logging in less frequently as the people I enjoyed playing with began to move on to other things. I cannot even place the moment that I decided to quit or the last time I logged in to the game. After having not logged in for a couple months I eventually cancelled my subscription sometime in early 2011.
After SWG, I tried out several of the MMO’s that had gone to a Free to Play and micro-transaction model. LotRO (Lord of the Rings Online) was kind of fun, but the controls always gave me trouble and made it less enjoyable over time. DDO (Dungeons & Dragons Online) was fun as well, better game controls and gameplay than LotRO for me. DDO while very fun, lacked a bit in the content department and the focus always seemed to be on getting to end-game as fast as possible and there being little to do once you’re there. My logins to MMOs pretty much died though when I finally gave in one day and purchased my new mistress… PS3.