Thanks for your review MMOPlaya,

Have been trying to decide whether to buy WAR or not and your review seemed nicely balanced..Looks like I'm just going to have to try it 

........and Conan said  "Crom laughs at your four winds. He laughs from his mountain."

I can remember helping someone out who was having trouble with a few mobs, after we got to chatting he asked if I would like to have his pets as he had decided to change his class to Smuggler ( NOT make a new alt, just change his class!) amongst them were his rares that had taken weeks to hunt down and find.

Then he asked if I would like to see his house which was full of awesome trophies collected overtime, furniture, pictures, animal heads, armour, weapons and many more items.

Later we headed out to a party being held on an island in the middle of a lake, there were fishing competitions, dancing and great musicians also a real variety of player made social clothes..

 Someone said they were starting a tailoring shop and needed fur, so everyone jumped into their vehicles and headed out for a hunt, level didn’t matter, class didn’t matter anyone could join in.

Player made robots collected the fur and every so often we would stop, sit around a campfire, rebuff and generally socialize and plan new events and raids.

Everyone got xp, even the music makers yet no NPC has told us what to do, we were doing what we wanted not what we were told and it was amazing fun. That is the real difference between linear and sandbox.

I am not saying linear games are not fun but unless you have experienced a GOOD sandbox, when it is working well it is hard to make comparisons.

I think the OP has made a valid statement and we shouldn’t argue amongst ourselves but try to get the developers to create the best gaming experience possible.

 This place is kept by powerful gods and spirits of kings..No -one will listen to you..Not even Smed!

Do flowers grow around here?

Pwnage!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=D7D32vBWw7o

For me SWG with all its problems once had something that I find missing in most other games….The many varieties and depth of tools that let a great community build its own world. It was the people that made SWG, they crafted multitudes of complex items, artistic creations were amazing, they built and ran the towns and guilds, and they fought, hunted and entertained together.

The sense of achievement after people had invested so much time and effort was something to be proud of…….So when the Gods decided and the great change came it is not surprising that people felt betrayed and there world torn apart…because it had been!!! There must be some drug in the sands because I have to return to those fallen worlds from time to time.

 Often you hear people talking about other games such as Everquest, UO and DOAC with as much passion. I do think those first games offered so much more even if in some cases it was executed badly...It would also be extremely hard for a "new" player to go into those games now and capture what there once was.

Wow arrived and millions joined the gaming world, many had never experienced the strength and closeness of those previous communities, but the Wow world was nigh on perfect in its simplicity and great fun to play. But with a huge mass of people came beggars in the towns and changed communities and even those perfect worlds can become tedious.

The odd thing is you often hear many an ex- Wow players, having played the game for a while dismiss it as boring...So what happened to all those fun memories and loyalty to a world they had been part of!

I found I also had the same problem with LotRO, so gave up playing it. I do remember early days of Anarchy Online when I had the same problem but persevered and eventually the motion sickness dissapeared.

I guess if you like the game enough it's worth a try just to see if you can adjust to it,  but hopefully someone can  point you towards that illusive  camera "lock", I could not find one!

Good luck with it, hope it works out for you.

 I have now played SWG for 3 months, was formally a Master Creature Handler and Master Bio-engineer, but left after those professions died. In the meantime have played WoW to 60 and Vanguard. This is my impression after 3 months of being back.

Firstly I must say I have really enjoyed being back and although SWG is not completely sandbox there is still an enormous amount of freedom. I did enjoy the Legacy quests and if you want to level quickly they are the way to go, you also receive some money and rewards along the way. They took me to almost level 50. If you don't enjoy Legacy there are missions (good xp now) or just go hunting with friends.

Crafting - Can be really interesting, you can set down harvesters and collect your own minerals etc. or hunt for things like hides. There are many items that are used for crafting and it can be fun going out and collecting them. There is also a large variety of things to make from droids to food, social clothes to weapons. There are factories to produce quantities and your own vendors to sell them from.

Checking the Bazaar which has hundreds of items on it can give you some idea of what sells. It did take me a while to learn how to find items but now have no problem at all. The Bazaar can definitely be improved, finding the right level of gun for instance can take ages as, although they are categorized there is no way of telling which level unless you check them all.

 Housing - Houses are great! If you enjoy creating or collecting items you will enjoy the houses, check out this site,

http://forums.station.sony.com/swg/posts/list.m?topic_id=481448

A guild and a good town are a really important part of SWG, although you can solo there are many things you need to group for, especially at higher levels.

Beast Mastery - Anyone can do this regardless of profession. There are basically two ways to go either make fun pets and mounts, easy for anyone and only requires one expertise point, or make a good combat pet which requires far more expertise is very expensive and definitely needs some studying. Luckily there are some great guides on the SWG forums. 

It is not the same as the original Creature Handler and Bio-engineer, nothing quite beats going out in the wild and taming babies, finding a rare or collecting DNA from a Rancor, but it can be very absorbing and has different merits of its own.

Travel - There are a variety of different mounts and vehicles to ride such as Swoop bikes, Banthas and Landspeeders, some of which can carry more than one person

Exploring - There are lot of planets to explore each one with a different atmosphere, from the fiery Mustafar to the waterfalls of Naboo, the tree canopy of Kasyyyk to the deserts of Tatooine, As you journey you meet many creatures and NPCs like wild Night sisters, fearsome Rancors or the funny Snorbals, There are also lots of places of interest to visit along the way, like Queen Amidala's Private Beach, Wookiee Homeworld or Ben Kenobi's Old Home, for these you collect badges.

Entertaining - I was really enjoying this until for some reason I started crashing a lot in Mos Eisley, am still trying to work out if it is me or SWG, Mos Eisley has a very busy cantina. The part of entertaining I found most fun was making a band. I could create holos give them all different instruments and make some pretty cool sounds, the money I got for buffing was very nice too  ;)))

Combat and targeting - I found this complicated at first but have now got used to it, it is worth reading guides and finding out which set-up suits you, although I still think it is an area of SWG that could be improved.

Space - Some people seem to love it whilst others hate it, for myself I find it makes a change from ground based stuff and just adds to the variety. Everyone can become a pilot although there is also a piloting profession. You can also build up your ship and do pvp in space.

Bugs - Not had too many of those, the occasional being shot through wall and getting stuck which was quickly resolved. The worse one was a team going into a high level instance and only half got through, very annoying after spending time putting group together and getting buffs.

PVP - Having just reached 90 have done very little so will leave that for someone else to comment on, although you do get faction points and titles. 

 RP - Character creation is great there are good macros, social clothing and of course the towns, also a politician profession.

Overall all I think SWG has a lot going for it, sometimes the scenery can be a little bland, yes there are a few bugs and far too many choose the Jedi profession but I think if you find a server that is not too empty, a good group of friends you can have a real blast!!

'Course this is just my opinion!  ;))

Great post girlgeek

Thank  you  Coochanawe

Pre-cu SWG

I have just given SWG another try. I was originally a Master Bio-engineer & Master Creature Handler, I left the day I could no longer get my pets out of data. As you can imagine I was bitter and sad, hours of work and research wasted!

Over the years I have gone back from time to time and been disappointed, it felt like a world in decay, empty cities, jedis running amok and very little purpose.

The last time I returned was just after BM(Beast Mastery) arrived, I was pleasantly surprised, cities were fuller ( I am on Chimeara ) and the atmosphere far better than previous visits and for me, most importantly!!.............. I could now get my old pets out of data, albeit to either stuff them and have house pets, or take dna and try to recreate them.

For the past couple of months I have really been enjoying myself, true it is not exactly like pre-CU bu it still has loads to offer and most important for me is its diversity. Quests, entertaining, trades, houses, items, BM also for everyone if they wish plus their chosen profession, space missions, story telling, in fact too many things to mention.

Since I have been back I have met a couple of people who are surprised at how they are enjoying the game, they were not expecting much due to bad reviews.

I do have a couple of dislikes, targeting for one, I am a medic and am finding it quite difficult. (yes, I have read the guides, still difficult) Also sooo many jedi, maybe because it seems a fun profession, but that makes grouping a bit jedi top-heavy.

SWG is still pretty unique compared to a lot of games out there and it is well worth giving it a try, as in a lot of games a good guild helps and also finding the most populated server.

Time will tell how things pan out but for me at this moment, all is good! 

All right, let's assume everyone completely misunderstood him.  Let's assume everyone's memory is completely faulty.  Let's assume all this confusion was because everyone didn't get his message and all those reviewers, players and Forum readers just couldn't figure out the 'real' message that Brad M was trying to say.

Sounds like he did a pretty pathetically lousy job communicating if this many people got the wrong message from him. 

Well I understood him!!  The one thing that was made constantly clear was that Vanguard was aiming at all types of players. If Brad made a mistake it was under estimating the type of emotion that built up whilst his vision was being conceived. The "old" gamers were expecting something that filled the empty spot left by other great MMORPGs, EQ, SWG, AO, etc. Whilst newer gamers are more in tune with "instant gratification" style games. When Vanguard took it's own intermediate path the emotive eruption was amazing.

We should try and get rid of preconceived ideas, Vanguard is not any of the other games and it is unique to itself! The vision also is not lost; Telon is a beautiful and vast world with loads of choices and game styles and masses of room for growth. I am deliberately not talking about performance and bug issues here as that has been done so many times, just the essence of the game.

So many accuse Sigil of a diversity of shortcomings, but who actually has the backbone and resolution to do what Brad has done. These guys are at the forefront of amazing technology; they are not deliberately making mistakes. In the end they like us want a great game, but we also need to be flexible and realise the enormous amount of money they risk whilst doing so.

http://img151.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img151/1910/1177414787z19.smil