I know most of you probably fell off of your seat laughing as you read the title, and I must admit the game did fall into true suckdom, but I also have to argue the fact that it had almost every aspect that would create the perfect MMORPG. In fact if a lot of the newer mmo’s coming out would follow its lead in certain aspects of their game, they too could create a truly amazing, immersive, and impressive mmo.
What was so great about SWG? Customization! Not only with your avatar, but with your classes. You could go up any tier of any class that you wanted, and even master a class and still be able to go up another line of another class. The tiered leveling system was a nice change from just level numbers.
Customization didn’t stop there…. they also added non combat classes that had nothing to do with crafting! I think this is what brought a lot of non-typical females into the world of gaming. Non-typical, meaning girls that normally didn’t play games of this type. In a sense, SWG was a gateway game, an enticing entrance into the world of gaming that once entered, closed, leaving no way of return. These non-combat, non-crafting classes were needed by the combat classes thus adding unique forms of socialization. The also included a need for the unique crafters such as image designers and tailors. Yeah, lots of games have tailors as one of the crafting classes, but not in the way that swg did it. Tailors could customize any outfit with a huge palette of colors and mix and match pieces to create new outfits. For the entertainers, this was a huge plus, but was a nice perk for the stylish fighter as well.
Again, we come forward with customization with player cities. Player cities were awesome. Guilds could build their own city or share with other guilds. There was a city hall, which meant you had to elect a mayor, and every citizen in the city was able to vote! This gave a form of democracy! The politician even had its own class line up, and as they leveled were able to give different things to the city. Another customizing aspect of the cities? Player housing. You could truly make your city unique with different styles of housing and signs outside that you could customize! Also, there wasn’t any zoning which allowed for PARTIES! I know you can have a party in other games with housing, but no one does. Do you know why? It is too much of a pain in the ass! With having to zone in, and the load times, plus the fact that you can’t sit in chairs, or create much of a party atmosphere.
Let me explain. In SWG you also had cantinas, which also had a stage, as well as a theater, plus your house. None of these required zoning, and you could choose who to let in or kick out if trouble arose. Because of the entertainer class, you could put together a band and practice until they could play in tune together. You could have dancers choreograph a dance for your party. Tailors could make them unique outfits to wear for the show. You could hire waitresses with unique outfits as well, and hairstyles to wait on the attendants. There would be people to wait on because there are tables and chairs to sit at, that you CAN sit at.
You could create games by having races, and some vehicles could sit more than one person. You could place buildings at different places, or have a tailor create an item and label it say “marker 1,” then so on to each house located in different areas. The people would race to these houses, be able to go in pick them up and head to the next one. The first one back won, of course. But because of this unique system of crafters being able to label their items and houses being able to be placed throughout the world, you could do something like this. You could also have raffles, set a door fee to charge entry, have a fishing tourney because the fish had a weight! You also had to have worms or some other kind of bait for your pole! You could have duels in your guild hall etc…
There was also PVP, which added another element to the game. I’m not a pvper, but the game was immersive enough with the rebel vs. imperials storyline that even though I was a dancer, when I would find out that our base or an alliance guild’s base was under attack, or the city, I would toss on some armor, grab a gun, and run to the closest shuttle to defend my friends and allies! Of course, sometimes I would be at a nearby cantina and come running out in my dancing clothes because all my comrades were down! They would scream, “Yah! Go ADAL!” Even though they knew I would die horribly, but it was about the fun of just seeing me run out there and try!
SWG had something for everyone. Even at the beginning when a Jedi was rare, before everyone figured out just to grind their way to the force. When you saw the first Jedi it was truly something amazing. Who was this person? How did they become a Jedi? How powerful were they? It was something to behold.
It’s a shame that the developers ruined this game and turned it into the joke that it now is, and a shame that they ruined Jedi from the start by allowing everyone to just grind through classes to become one. It should have been something that remained rare. Perhaps through a long, long quest line that took so much time that it would be all you could do it game. And perhaps different for each player.
This game had so much potential, and so many aspects that made it great. I truly believe that it is one of the greatest MMO’s ever, at least it laid out the ground work on what future mmo’s should and should not do to become great. I just wish I understood why none of the games after it implemented a lot of its features that did make it unique and so much fun. So much a real thriving community.
Conjuring Candles 
seriously, there needs to be a game out there that I can enjoy, and convince my wife its worth the 15 a month to play.
What do you mean convince me it’s worth the 15 a month to play???? I’m the one wanting the 15 a month to play EQ2. And Adele… could you please add a paragraph about something other than gaming just for me??? Otherwise I feel bad having nothing to comment on everyday.
One will come soon! I think you would have liked SWG when it was first released, but it is too late for that:(
LOL… Please we all know there is no such thing as something other than gaming! It’s just one of those myths like the lock ness monster or real life! Wow! Whoever heard of such a thing? Pretty funny joke though:P
Wait… you’re saying that the Loch Ness Monster is a myth???? I can’t believe that. Its just not true. Please, say it ain’t so! Life without Nessie would be like life without good beer.
Jedi was the loose thread that unravelled the whole thing, I always thought. Clearly the marketing people, rightly perhaps, decided that most people come to Star Wars for the lightsabres, so gradually, it went from rare, to difficult, to common, and eventually, to Character Select.
I quite liked the original idea that we, the players, were just the ordinary people, and the Jedi were some kind of clouded myth.
Ah well, happy times, now fond memories.
Hey… this has nothing to do with your blog, but I was just wondering! Are we still starting our El Maguey Fridays this week even though it’s Audrey’s b-day?
A MMO(RPG) like SWG will come soon if i have my ways after graduating from Highschool. I love writing stories and hope to become a game writer, and i got one big big project whom im working on.
A Mideval/rennesance fantasy world, if this world is ever chosen as a mmo world it would have something for every type of player ( except the Bots and Grinders ). Wanna go kill stuff? Become an adventurer, join the army or become a mercanary. Want to live in the town? become a noble, artist, dancer, shop owner and so on.
http://www.velherak.com ( I apologice for the Typo’s in the texts, havent had time to go over and refine them, also that i come from Norway and write the texts in both Norwegian and English.
Why did i give you the link? Im not sure, perhaps you will catch interest in in, ive been looking for writes to help me build up a wide array of folklore, sagas and stories.
And by the way, i was also a player of SWG long ago before sony “ruined” it, and i liked your blog about old SWG a lot, nothing could beat the fun i had with my zabrak and Sandy ( My Bantha ) and im sure a mmo who follows it genious design will take the best bits and make perhaps a better game even.
– Nuuhnuuh
I will check your site out:)
Cheer’s Lass.
– Nuuhnuuh
Excellent precis bringing back fond memories of what I too felt was the best MMO to date. I’ve always been terrible at combat but great at crafting, and SWG had the finest crafting system devised to date. All you say about the comraderie developed during play, and the bringing in of non-traditional players is right on target. My Guild had whole families involved. Mothers and Daughters involved in an MMO! The mother was a doctor and the daughter a bounty hunter! But the crafting, as I said, was my true love and has yet to be equalled in any MMO. I had 5 accounts, all cancelled a month after the NGE. WHY SOE chose to destroy the game will remain a mystery to me.
When SWG was in it’s prime before all the horrible changes, i believe it to have been one of the greatest games ever made. I am a long time gamer going back to the atari system, and when i first played SWG i was so excited about it. The most rewarding feeling about SWG for me was the fact that almost every item in the game was craftable and most of the items that were on the market were crafted by players, and the items were not bound to any limits either. When an item was created it stayed in the world forever until it was consumed, destroyed, or just worn out, and not too mention they could be traded to anyone. The economical feel of SWG is what made me love it.