In an incredibly obvious Diablo 3-like announcement, Bioware and LucasArts confirm that they are indeed working on a Star Wars MMORPG set in the age of The Old Repubilc that has probably been in development since Knights of the Old Republic.

Is it just me, or is there something inherently wrong with two massively multiplayer games from two different developers about the exact same subject, trying to appeal to the exact same audience, at the exact same time?

Wait, don’t answer that question.

But this isn’t the same as a fantasy setting being done hundreds of times with roughly equivalent results. This is the most recognizable setting in science fiction. This is Star Wars. With lightsabers for everyone.

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I still hold fast to my belief that Star Wars Galaxies was the best MMORPG I’ve ever played. Looking back through past writings, it read like an emotional rollercoaster where my fondness for the game fluctuated drastically over a short period. Through five months of playing, I was exposed to an incredible variety of roleplaying experiences, high-level monster hunts, and taking part in producing average-level goods for the game world’s economy. I was quick to dismiss the Jump to Lightspeed expansion as the first nail in the game’s coffin, because the mechanics of the land and space-based portions of the game felt so disparate. I didn’t want a twitch shooter, I wanted an extension of my adventures planetside. Though in hindsight the “X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter” model is probably the only way it could have been done in such a small timeframe. Three expansions later Star Wars Galaxies has changed dramatically, to the point that players started leaving in droves.

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The Star Wars Galaxies expansion pack I alluded to the other day is called Rage of the Wookiees. A mild surprise, to be sure, but that’s probably because I was expecting something a little more…exciting. Then again, they’ve already covered the jump into hyperspace, so what else is there besides adding a few new planets or playable races from the films?

According to the announcement, both land and space around the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk will be added, along with many new missions to go along with this new locale. In their contribution to the slave trade, the evil Trandoshans have set up several camps, and it will be the duty of players to either put and end to it or see that it flourishes. This ties in with one of the settings of the upcoming Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, as well as one of the missions in Republic Commando.

I find it a bit ironic that Episode III is going to be using Kashyyyk as a setpiece, because that was supposed to be the setting for the endgame of Return of the Jedi. Up until Chewie was established in a late draft of Star Wars as a technologically aware being – and a remarkable mechanic – Wookiees were to be a race of savages. In fact, that whole sequence where the Ewoks take on the Empire was supposed to be with Wookiees. After A New Hope Uncle George felt he was kind of screwed – there was no way people would believe that Wookiees would fight with rocks and logs after they’d seen him fire his bowcaster or fly the Millenium Falcon. To this day I still believe that Wookiee plush toys would have sold equally well, but that’s neither here nor there.

Also added in the expansion will be some new space faring vehicles, the most notable being Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter As Seen In The Film. This sounds like such a movie tie-in doesn’t it? I thought Galaxies would be able to avoid this kind of cross marketing, since it’s a game that’s been out for a while already. Due to the nature of its dynamic content though, I guess it was a valid target. It’s also pretty transparent that Lucasarts is calling the expansion “Episode III” – I mean, Jump to Lightspeed had “Episode I” right on the box. I know that they’re counting from the first release of Galaxies, but really, does the promotion have to be this obvious?

Players who enjoy the space based missions will now be able to take on “space mining” missions, where you can harvest resources from asteroids and contribute to the land based game’s economy. This is a great idea, and a step in integrating the two completely different experiences. Another addition is the ability for players to add cybernetic components to their characters, that will in turn offer improved abilities that are more than likely related to your performance in combat. Why this was done is anyone’s guess, because the cybernetic enhancements look far too crude to mesh with the period Galaxies covers in the Star Wars timeline. When Luke gets his new hand at the end of Empire Strikes Back, it’s clearly meant to be an extension of his existing body. In this new expansion, it seems that these enhancements are meant to look like enhancements, instead of adding a feature in the game to allow characters to improve on their stats without any visible side effects. But maybe I’m just nitpicking.

I’m not sure if this additional expansion was such a great idea, but I think Star Wars is experiencing some kind of fallout with the fans that it recollected after the new action figures and novels came onto the scene in the early to mid 90s. This kind of game and media integration will keep Star Wars in the geek collective consciousness, and that’s generally where they want to be. I just hope the playability of Galaxies isn’t sacrificed again by a hasty expansion that does little to change the game’s intrinsic shortcomings.

to smooth the unattractive truth

A setting as rich in content as the Star Wars universe, where the story is already embedded in the consciousness of gamers everywhere, allows the possibility of truly seamless role playing in a game like Star Wars Galaxies. Next to its contemporaries, the quasi-modern setting of Galaxies allows people to just be their characters instead of worrying how they’ll react to each situation in the technologically stunted worlds that form the basis for fantasy MMORPGs. Some of the most satisfying roleplaying experiences I’ve had in an MMORPG were in Star Wars Galaxies, because when the grind got boring you could always enjoy what the engaging community had to offer.

My initial reaction to hearing that the 203rd Tatooine Expeditionary Stormtrooper Legion was paid a visit by Darth Vader himself was one of derision. Next to the mass hysteria surrounding World of Warcraft, SOE must be really desperate to retain subscribers to pull a stunt like this. Based on Bruce Woodcock’s MMORPG Chart, after just over three months of operation World of Warcraft has a significant hold over the current market, accelerating to 1.25 million subscribers. After a year and a half, Galaxies remains topped out at just over 250,000 subscribers. What happened?

I’ve discussed in the past the weaknesses that Galaxies has in comparison to the more traditional MMORPG. Galaxies is a job in the truest sense, and requires more time than is reasonable. To develop your character into something that’s actually worth playing, you have to suffer through a grind that is both tedious and frustrating. The awards are all long term: become a master armoursmith by crafting millions of items, work your way through Jabba’s ranks by taking on increasingly hard missions, or better yet, master multiple professions that may unlock your Force potential so that you can begin the long journey towards becoming a Jedi. To some, dedicating hours to this would seem ludicrous – we’re playing a game here, right? It should be fun! Though I always saw it as a perfect adaptation of real life into the Star Wars mythos. Not all of the classes and occupations are glamorous, but they do have their place and make the game world that much more immersive. These store owners and tailors and shipwrights are controlled by real people.

If I was a member of that stormtrooper guild I’d probably feel very proud, but also a little relieved. Relieved that the constant drilling and patrols did actually serve a purpose, because there’s no fucking way Galaxies was doling out any experience for that. This was roleplaying in its purest form: players living the life of a stormtrooper when the Empire still had its oppressive grip on the galaxy. Maybe they’ll get some interested recruits as a result of this event, which couldn’t come a more opportune time. SOE says that the Galactic Civil War is near completion, with updates allowing players to take sides and engage in the struggle to control the galaxy. It sounds like they’ve really thought about this system, and apparently the legendary Combat Revamp and an as yet un-named expansion pack will actually be released as well.

Sadly, this unplanned inspection by Darth Vader seems to be relegated to fan sites only – it wasn’t even listed as a news item on the official Galaxies website. It’s not like famous NPCs like this make an appearance every day – as they shouldn’t – but this could have been used as a clever marketing tool to get people interested in the game again. Especially the former players that quit the game in frustration after broken promises and an inconsequential expansion pack. It showed that even seemingly insignificant devotion to this game might actually pay off.

So I’ll take back my cynical comments, because I know that the dev team on Galaxies has taken a lot of shit from players over the past year and a half. It’s nice to see them notice this die hard subset of the larger community. It doesn’t correct the game’s many underlying problems, but for that moment it at least provided a little context on why people wanted to play this game in the first place.

Soon after I joined Star Wars Galaxies, I enlisted myself in the Beta program for Jump to Lightspeed. Being a fresh recruit into the Galaxies fold, I envisioned this expansion as being the game’s saving grace. How could SOE/Lucasarts make a better Star Wars MMORPG experience? Easy. Add in the spacecraft and dogfighting that made the movies so fun to watch and you’ve got yourself an instant hit. And for a good portion of the beta, I almost believed it. But after signing off the day before the expansion’s official release last week, it hit me: Jump to Lightspeed is just a clever distraction.

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