Feeling NostalgicFollow

(Long Very Long Post Warning)

So my old roommate and I just talked about our favorite games and we both agreed that the only game that could compete with (and probably surpass) Halo 1 was SWG. We talked about the good ole days of SWG for about an hour and I thought I'd share some of our memories.

My friend was playing the game in beta and I was lucky enough to see him play in when the game was very new. He was around since day 1, I was around since day 10 or so, and I recruited another player who became a very well known player on our server just a few days after me.

The game started and we had to choose a class. My future roommate was becoming a pet trainer, I started the path of bounty hunter, and the other friend started as a medic. It was the summer before college started so I literally had nothing to do but play this game and go swimming.

I remember starting on in Tatooine and grinding for hours killing the little runt animals running around the outside of towns. This game was so great because it was so non-linear. You weren't grinding levels you were grinding boxes in any fashion you wanted. The cities were absolutely jammed packed with people. It was a great choice for my first MMO!

One day, my future roommate (to be referred as Jake for remainder) tells me about something going on way south in Tatooine where the xp was simply amazing. So, I catch a shuttle to Anchorhead and run for about 20 minutes to the Wayfar area. Back in this time period there was a Tusken camp that would spawn and the occasional warlord would appear. There was a group of about 20 people or so and the xp was amazing. We would get like 1000 xp on warlords which was insane at the time. But eventually that fun came to an end because the camp disappeared.

Now, not too long after I became a master marksman and scout. I distinctly remember being one of the first masters and wherever I went I would get saluted by impressed people. Jake, left Tatooine to explore Endor. My other friend and I were honestly sad because we thought it would be a long time before we saw Jake again(because it cost like 10,000 credits to go to Endor.) Yea, noobs are illogical.

Grinding was pretty slow until a new Tusken rumor emerged. People started whispering of a fort waaaay to the north of Mos Espa. Jake, being recently nerfed, just switched to TK and was willing to try anything for fast grinding.

The run to the fort was at least 15 minutes. If you had no scouting skills it could have easily been 25. We would run there with a huge group and plan little ambushes for 1 or maybe 2 tuskens at a time. We would attack the Tuskens surrouding the fort but never enter because we thought that was suicide. Eventually we got the balls to try it out and we got absolutely annihilated.

Eventually as people got stronger we were able to survive longer and longer around the fort. I remember being apart of (I'm assuming) the first group to enter the fort and clear the cave and enter on top of the fort. This was weeks after our first visit there. It took great damage and even better healing.

My friend the healer, Jake the TKer, myself, and another bounty hunger eventually became strong enough to do 4 person runs late into the night and conquer the fort. We thought (and at the time we were) we were badasses. We would run past group of 12 people or so, making a detailed plan of how they would take the fort, and just go in (the 4 of us) and start clearing everything.

So time went on and I became bored with my profession. I was a 3444 Bounty Hunter. Back then, getting you bounty hunter xp was ridiculously time consuming. Took me weeks to go from 2444 to 3444. So, my friend and I joined a new server but Jake would not come with. So we said our goodbyes to MeepX and other friends whom I can't remember. We left Kettemoor for Flurry.

We created our characters and joined a guild. We were masters in no time due to our knowledge of grinding at the Tusken Fort. One random late night I was out exploring in Naboo for an Imperial Base. I heard that they dropped force crystals. Instead, I looted a Holocron. This started a whole new stage of the game.

I was lucky enough to get Polearms for my first Holocron. I did that in a week. I went back (and this is still before the Holocron megacraze) and got Artisan. I did that in 24 hours. Got another Holocron and got Image Designer. I don't remember how long that took but I remember it was awful. Then, I got the worst news ever. Mother f*ucking musician. It took me weeks if not a month to do that profession. I would just sit there and get minimal xp for days on end. It was awful, my game experience went to ****. My friend (Chase) laughed at me for doing this, saying it won't lead to anything. Finally, I got another Holocron and it was silent. I gave my last one to Chase. Right around that point in time, the Holocron craze went nuts.

I started doing random professions, starting with the beginning ones. By now, everyone knew was the holocrons did and that Jedi was possible. One of the first I tried was Marksman. Well whadda know. I got the message and some eerie music. Jake was asleep at the time but somehow unconciously he knew something was afoot. I turned around to say Jake! but he was already looking at my computer screen freaking out.

I created a Jedi that night just to **** around with and get the basics down. At this point in SWG, your Jedi got 3 lives and poof, stats/xp are gone. So I just saw how difficult it was. Let me tell, that first night was awesome. To flick on the lightsabre and here that hum was so satisfying. Just to ***** with people me and Chase started a duel outside of Coronet and he ended it but my sabre would stay on (glitchy). 5 minutes later, after my Jedi aggro would go away, I would run through the streets of Coronet with my sabre going. People were following me around taking screenshots, it was a circus. (I believe I was the 3rd Jedi on my server, but the first one to do stupid stuff like that).

I spent the next week out shopping for the best armor (yeah Jedi wore armor) I could find and other trinket I thought were necessary. Then I created my new Jedi account and started to grind in the most isolated places I could find.

I thought I was prepared for the Jedi grind but I was not. It was like any master profession X 100. I would grind all day and night and not even put a dent into a skill box. Basically, I would go to the most remote places on Endor and grind killing creature and especially their lairs for xp. I did this for 3 reasons:

1) Endor was extremely desolate so the chances of someone seeing me was nil.
2) Most creature on Endor were not slayers.
3) Lairs gave huge xp bonuses if you used force push on them (or some other force skill)

Eventually I too got burnt out. Jake and I quit, leaving Chase on his own. He played for another year or so and was a major PVP force on Flurry (Killtacular). I would duel him all the time but my weak Jedi couldn't compare with him. I was only a Padawan, he was a PVP legend. The game was getting old and friends were leaving and it just wasn't as fun anymore. Also, there was an impending change coming to the game and I heard bad things about that change and other in the future. SWG was the best game I ever played. The first time I played it and for the next many months, it was so new, exciting, and different. Too bad I got burnt out and too bad they eventually f*cked the game up.

Sorry to rant on like that but I just wanted to share some old memories of SWG, back when it was the greatest game at the time and possibly the best game I ever experienced.

Me and my friends wish you well.

Variable Wenobo (Kettemoor), Variable Enigma (Flurry) Sifo-Dyas (Flurry-Jedi)- Me
Bartthedog / Kraerto (Kettemoor) - Jake
Killtacular / Killtacular - Chase

Nostalgia sucks so much, always makes me remember horrible things as awesome (damn you 80's cartoons!)

I loved SWG before they nerfed it. I had spent way to much time on becoming a jedi and now all of a sudden you could roll a jedi. blah blah blah.. no no no.... Switched to Wow love it now. Hopefully SWG will be completely destroyed when they put out the new starwars MMO by Bioware.

Hehe that always cracks me up...

"The NGE destroyed Star Wars Galaxies because it dropped the number of classes to 9 (+Trader subclasses) and it made the game too simple but we are really looking forward to the new Star Wars game with 8 cookie cutter classes, no space, housing, basic crafting and a linear character development process."


As far as the early days of SWG go I am far from nostalgic, I recall struggling to pay for a house and some harvesters, bugs, slow transport and having to run everywhere, on the whole the game was closer to a job than I ever wanted.

From memory I did not even last my free month, however they improved the game a lot after release and I came back to shorter shuttle waits and vehicles which improved the game to playable.


Edited, Jan 12th 2010 4:11am by MontyB