http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfGk17aJqlI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsz0RgfsqpA

That pretty much sums it up for me ^_^.

It had alot of problems but it was all fixable and for many of us it was the potential of the system the game had that kept us playing. Like the whole profession system with seamless worlds and player housing/cities with all the customization and how crafting was a major part of the game. It had so many social mechanics built in like the death penalty and how all the professions needed eachother to play the game. Was just all the fine details of the game that we loved and SOE took away in the CU and NGE... oh and no levels was a big thing too.

All the game needed was fixes for things like comp armour and doctor buffs. Needed constant bug fixing and it needed lots and lots of content because it was no secret that lack of content was the games downfall as most people find grinding boring.

However instead of doing this all they seemed interested in was Jedi and just ruined the game ignoring all the problems and constantly adding to them.



I mention all this like I hated the game but it just had charm and character and it was unique, unlike all the generic souless WoW clones of today....... like Warhammer Online.

Heya John ^_^.  Did you ever do any old school base raiding or pvp events?  Man those were mind-blowing experiences.  What a trip.

I never did the PVP in SWG because I didn't like how it played due to the comp armour and doc buffs lol. Then the Alpha Jedi came along and ruined the balance of everything.

I just stuck to crafting and creature handling and all that and just explored and did the PVE stuff.

Sounds like you had fun.  A little something for everyone in that game.  I never really got into the crafting, but friends of mine just loved it.  I also never had a creature handler but used to kick the crap out of adult creatures while my friend was taming babies lol.  That was cool.  I was really into the PvP.  Base-busting especially.  I had a TKM/Master Doc, all hopped up on force enhancements from the village.  That was cool.  I found myself competitive with jedi on that build, even though they were an unlock.  Also, my favourite death came at the hands of a female Zabrack jedi with a double-bladed light saber lol.   

I do was my 2nd mmo and it rocked.

my hole guild quit at the nge.

good times.

Lots of videos from this guy, he was on Lowca but Rebel (I was Imp) and always fought against his guild. Word of warning, this was a very Jedi heavy guild, they were among the biggest fightclubbers of all SWG servers at the time.

http://www.youtube.com/bladewaker

Even when I was playing it, before CU or the Jedi Revamp (where things started to go downhill), I saw a LOT of potential in this. If they would have spent all the time they did revamping the game fixing it instead it would probably be the best game ever. In the era where they added all the awesome sandbox-y features, if they just had the creative talent of Raph Koster leading instead of just programming they probably would have everything fixed, figured out, and niched into a 500K subscriber base by now.

But no. Two revamps and two even more broken down systems and a weening subscription-base that followed for the fire for the building that would never be the same, the core damaged before we could even set blame on Smed, all of his decisions lead this catastrophe.

Everyone hated Jedi Fight Clubs back in the day and now people look back and miss them lol.

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

Everyone hated Jedi Fight Clubs back in the day and now people look back and miss them lol.

Jedi Fight Club? ... I guess I was so 'out of the loop' of Jedis that I never paid attention to that.

First time I ever heard of it. (Might be because I was on Bloodfin, who knows?)

Originally posted by Mackerni

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

Everyone hated Jedi Fight Clubs back in the day and now people look back and miss them lol.

Jedi Fight Club? ... I guess I was so 'out of the loop' of Jedis that I never paid attention to that.

First time I ever heard of it. (Might be because I was on Bloodfin, who knows?)

Tons of Jedi standing around killing each other to level their FS rank.  With this, Jedi became pretty dominant in PVP.

I actually tried to organized PVPers from all servers to join a Jedi-free GCW guildwar on the Test Center.  It was coming along nicely when SOE pulled the plug by launching the NGE.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder................I really did enjoy the game a lot and everything else just seems like a rebound for me. I do not think there will ever come a game that will hold my attention like that beautiful buggy mess did. C'est la vie.

As others have said it was the open world.

Granted it was  a bit too open as some of us felt at odds for things to do at first. However the players started to make their own stories. Unfortunately the devs decided rather than working with what they  had they would scrap the whole thing and do something completely different.

Personally I would have offered Jedi as a starting class once you had taken a character up to max level.

I would have added a rank system based on acheivement that could not be ground out but had to be played out by actually doing things in the game. (IE no kill 10 rats over and over)

I would have put in more PVP options.

I would have had GMs running an overstory of PVP battles of empire vs rebels.

I would have kept the entire thing going without adding abunch of crappy collect and kill quests. 
 

I hated the game after they changed it and left. I am sure some people liked it, heck I might have liked it if it was what was originally presented. However I felt the first game they put out could have been tweaked and made more fun instead of just trashing it.

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Originally posted by Mackerni

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Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

Everyone hated Jedi Fight Clubs back in the day and now people look back and miss them lol.

---

Jedi Fight Club? ... I guess I was so 'out of the loop' of Jedis that I never paid attention to that.
First time I ever heard of it. (Might be because I was on Bloodfin, who knows?)

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Best game there ever was, without a doubt. My best moments in that game, will never have that feeling for a game, ever again

Because it let you be who you wanted to be within the Star Wars universe as opposed to telling you who you were going to be. Some people like being funneled down a certain path, which is fine for them. I more prefer to have much choice in what I become and do. Pre NGE allowed that. The 9 "iconic classes" doesn't as is the case for most games that base themselves on a class system. I'd rather choose the skills I want instead of having the devs choose them for me.

Originally posted by ArcAngel3

Sounds like you had fun.  A little something for everyone in that game.  I never really got into the crafting, but friends of mine just loved it.  I also never had a creature handler but used to kick the crap out of adult creatures while my friend was taming babies lol.  That was cool.  I was really into the PvP.  Base-busting especially.  I had a TKM/Master Doc, all hopped up on force enhancements from the village.  That was cool.  I found myself competitive with jedi on that build, even though they were an unlock.  Also, my favourite death came at the hands of a female Zabrack jedi with a double-bladed light saber lol.   

SWG is the only MMO and possibly game, period to make you laugh your ass off and have so much fun getting killed by other players. I think during the CU it was, I respec'd to a MBH and played around with attacking Jedi. It was a blast. I didn't level the class myself so I didn't know how to play it like I would if I had, but I did have a lot of fun, lasted a long time with one Jedi and then another MBH somehow got the same missions and popped in and started helping me. I don't know how that happened. Didn't know it was possible, but it was funny.

I hate PVP. I liked it in SWG CU/Pre-CU. I remember base busting Pre-CU and I wasn't master Rifleman yet, but had fun nonetheless even though I got destroyed. I never have fun doing that in any other game and I've played a LOT of mmorpg's.

Hunting for force crystals was one of the funnest aspects of SWG I think. Even though I couldn't use them. We used to show off our crystal collections in our houses to each other. When the new expansion came out and made it so that you could get trophies of beasts heads, I thought that was pretty cool too. Decorating your house with those was fun (still is I suppose?).

I used to love shakin' down the sisters for some nice crystals lol.  Great gifts for jedi pals ^_^.  Good hunting for me.

Hey I just found this kickin' around on Youtube.  Fond memories indeed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCBUDudlkwg&feature=related

There's a few things people seem to completely forget about from pre-CU, it's all the small little things that made the game matter. One of my favorite features of pre-CU was the accuracy modifier, say using a pistol with an accuracy of +3 at 0m/+37 at 32m/-10 at 64m, if you stood 32m away from your target you'd recieve maximum accuracy, if you kneeled or proned you'd gain a little more, if you ran around while shooting the accuracy modifier dropped. Also a rifleman would have -10 at 0m and -20 at 25m but +75 at 64m. It's why melee fighters ran around alot back then, makes the enemies miss them a little more especially if the enemy is also melee.

It's one thing why combat actually worked in SWG back then, despite a couple broken professions like pistoleer (but worked super well when coupled with smuggler).

Rose-colored googles do wonders I suppose.  The pre-CU game had two, count them two, good things going for it:  1. great concepts, and 2. great community.  Otherwise, the rest of the game was a completely borked pile of rubbish.  And Jedi, yikes don't get me started on that wrek lol.

Had SOE/LA had any gumption to work on the fixing the foundations of the game, rather than jumping from fire to fire, I may have fonder memories of the game itself.  Instead every patch introduced more of the same, and frankly I can't blame SOE/LA for wanting to change the game; however unethical imo the decision was.

I would say 2 main things for me.

1. Freedom to do whatever template wise, you could mix and match anything.

2. COMMUNITY!!

If I have to say anything about the pre CU game that is remembered fondly, it was that the character development was different.  Open and adaptable to how YOU wanted to play.

Were there problems?  Oh yah, but this whole EQ style of games is really for the birds and does get old after awhile.

Originally posted by IcoGames

Rose-colored googles do wonders I suppose.  The pre-CU game had two, count them two, good things going for it:  1. great concepts, and 2. great community.  Otherwise, the rest of the game was a completely borked pile of rubbish.  And Jedi, yikes don't get me started on that wrek lol.

Had SOE/LA had any gumption to work on the fixing the foundations of the game, rather than jumping from fire to fire, I may have fonder memories of the game itself.  Instead every patch introduced more of the same, and frankly I can't blame SOE/LA for wanting to change the game; however unethical imo the decision was.

I agree with the concepts and community ideas, most definitiely.  At the same time, I think people can remember their game experience fondly, and see the bugs and issues for what they were.

That's something that Rubenfield, Smed and others never really seemed to grasp.  We loved the game, AND saw real bugs and issues that needed to be fixed.

They saw subscriptions declining, never attributed it to the glaring issues, and decided to start the game over, pretty much from scratch, twice.  Each time they tried to do this, it was more rushed and buggy than the first release.  As a result, people continued to leave because of bugs and issues, but now they also left because their progress got flushed.  Contrast this with EVE's approach, and I think you'll see what I mean.  

I said to the SOE reps then (and still say it now): I see the flaws of the original game just fine.  We did have a group of people working with the devs on that in the CURB after all.  At the same time, there was a foundation that was dearly loved, and that had tremendous potential.   The skill system and community building tools, for example, were truly amazing.  This didn't all need to be ejected for a completely different game.  It just needed to be fixed, and have content added to go along with all the tools. 

It was my first MMO, and I've been hopping back and forth between games ever since. Nothing else seems to be able to hold my attention for very long. I really wish SOE would just give us back our game already, I think they'd be surprised how many people would come back. It seems like at this point they are just trying to milk it for as much money as they can until SW:TOR comes along and delivers the killing blow.