Star Wars Galaxies: Report #1
Ekim, 2003-07-29

Sunday July 27th marked the end of SWG's first month of life as a released game - although the game was actually released on June 26th, practically no one could log on and play on that day. Now, every MMORPG in the past has always had some growing pains in their first few months of life. Without using that as an excuse, SWG is no different, and it won't be the game that breaks tradition unfortunately.

Bumps on the road…

SWG's launch wasn't extremely bad, but it wasn't very good either. The worst time came in the week of July 14th when server availability was at it's lowest during prime time. Servers that were stuck in a constant "loading" state (whatever that meant), "ghosting" characters (which means they would literally be able to go through walls and terrain), friends lists disappearing, invisible banks, group chat unavailable… The list goes on and on. The frustration for some players reached its peak during that time as well.

Things have settled down slightly since last week, but it remains to be seen if all the critical bugs will be gone within a short time frame. SOE published a long list of things they are working on, but there is so much on it that it's permissible to doubt everything will be taken care of before the end of August! Players that don't want to be bothered by bugs (and why would anyone not be bothered by them) should stay away from SWG a little while longer. Also, the lag in some of the major cities on Tatooine, Naboo and Corellia is sometimes so awful that it makes doing anything very painful.

The issue that gets to me the most though is the lack of feedback outside of the game. Patch notes don't seem to make the front page of the game's console until a day later sometimes. Also the list of servers that are available is inaccurate almost all the time. It's not uncommon to be met with a notice saying that all servers are up when in fact some aren't. Even the official website is severely lacking in this regard. At the time of this writing, the Recent Updates page on SWG's official website posts the July 22nd patch notes as the most recent addition, even though there already have been two patches after that one. More irritating is the fact that there is almost never any notice about the servers coming down while in the game, resulting in a loss of connection for no apparent reason…

The good…. But not that good

The game remains highly enjoyable, despite the few "nerfs" and questionable fixes that players have sometimes been subjected to. The Scout's Mask Scent ability nerf was a rather unpopular one, but it was admittedly not working as intended. You could switch it back on right after being detected, and so it gave way to too much exploiting. The next one, which is still being discussed now (but not yet implemented at this time) is the Creature Handler pets and combat droids issue, which are far too powerful to keep as they are. Unskilled players that are gifted with such droids or pets can reportedly become as much as 3 times more powerful than they actually should be! Fortunately events in the last week proved that SWG's developers do listen to their community, and welcomed adjustments were made to the upcoming changes. Still, nerfs should be expected to be part of SWG for at least a while yet, and it wouldn't be surprising to see more in the near future.

So far I can safely say that SWG is a solo player's dream come true, if you know how to choose your class. There hasn't been an MMORPG I tried before that was so rewarding for players that wish to adventure alone out in the wild, while still maintaining a good sense of community by gently forcing players to seek out their peers for gear and multiple services. It's a wonderful blend that I enjoy very much. Casual players, once the bugs are cleared, should find a good, welcoming home here.

What's coming next?

SWG's promised monthly story is yet to make its first appearance, although under the circumstances I would rather they would not start any story just yet. The game still needs much work before any kind of story-related quests can be truly enjoyed. Content such as creature mounts, vehicles, and player-run cities are much more in demand for the moment. The bugs that continue to litter the gameplay could make the monthly story more irritating than anything else, and that is the first reason why it should be postponed until everything is ironed out.

Overall the game is quite enjoyable, and I maintain that this is one of the better MMORPGs to come out in a long while. That being said, the bugs can still be too irritating for most, and those who decide to join the game at this time should do so fully expecting problems and delays. The developers are working hard at solving these problems, but the lack of feedback is sometimes a little disappointing. Add to that the always present possibility of further profession nerfs, and you've got yourself a potential problem. As I already mentioned in my review, wait until you see player-mounts and/or cities being implemented to know when the game is ready, unless the above mentioned issues do not bother you too much.

Report Score: 75% *

See you again next month for another status report on SWG's progress.

* The monthly report score does not reflect the general quality of the game as a whole, but is an indication of the progress the game has made since the last review or report. We take a more detailed look at the network status, content updates, and bug fixes for instance, rather than gauge how good or bad the game is. For a more detailed look at the general quality of the game, please read our official review.