Star Wars Galaxies Ends in December
I really have mixed feelings about this news. I played Galaxies for years, and sort of hoped that The Old Republic Online would spur them to return the game to its glory days... I didn't think they would raise the white flag.
Pre-NGE (New Game Enhancements) Galaxies is the gold standard by which I judge all MMOs, and they all come up lacking. Post-NGE they had a lot of highs and lows. I just said last night that I thought they would go free to play, guess I was wrong.
What they got right
None of the classes, races, or characters were faction locked. You could play anything as anything.
You could switch factions if you wanted
Player cities that were involved in the Galactic Civil War.
Guild wars
The best crafting system I have ever seen.
Non-combat classes that made the community form naturally.
Varied game play
Expansive worlds to explore and build in
Character customization, you character was your character
What they got wrong
They removed the sandbox characters with NGE. You used to be able to build your own custom classes easily
They focused on forcing large group play rather than making an amazing game that people talked their friends into playing.
HORRIBLE customer service. Ask anyone who played, they didn't care about you as long as you payed your bill.
They never really updated the game after NGE, and game play started to feel dated
What now?
I suppose this makes the open source Pre-NGE project 100% legal after next year, since the game will no longer be playable in any other form. I have some serious concerns about The Old Republic Online, so I hope this means that Lucas Arts is transferring the Film and extended universe content to another company.
This is sad, but not entirely unexpected news.