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46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dire!, 5 Dec 2005
Star Wars Galaxies is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) whereby players live as if "Star Wars" really existed, but in game form. Originally this was a game like no other, unique in playability and so huge in size, it would be almost impossible to see and do everything there was. With spectacular graphics, and high quality music the same as the films, this was a game that brought hundreds of thousands of fans together. Players had houses, jobs, starships, and could meet the famous characters of the story if they were lucky and looked hard enough. Eventually, if you had happened to have uncovered certain parts of the game, and just happened to do the right things at the right time, you might have "unlocked" the hidden ability to become a Jedi, the characters everyone watched Star Wars for. After that, you'd have to spend between 5 months and 2 years to be able to take your Jedi up the ranks of the game (to my knowledge only one person ever made it to the end, "One with the Force").
Sadly, since October 2004, the game had gone through a frequent series of changes, that eventually turned the game into something utterly different from what it started out to be. With every change came thousands of outrages players who were directly affected by what Sony Online Entertainment had changed. Suddenly everything they had worked for was taken away, and they had to learn a new game from scratch. It has gotten to the point now where hundreds of thousands of people have cancelled their subscription to the game, or been banned for requesting it be reverted to what it was before.
I have had the displeasure of spending nearly £300 on this game since I first started playing it (15 months ago) and it was all for nothing. I bought every expansion pack, enhancements, and paid my subscription without fail, yet it was all for nothing. Everything I did, was undone and I had to start all over again. This is a game of frequent and drastic changes, making it impossible to play. It is ultimately a permanent BETA (game in testing and not ready for general release). In November, it had been changed so much, the only things that remained were the name of the game, and the names of locations within the game. Everything else, right down to the clothes your character was wearing, had been changed. All of your progress thus far, gone. Anything your character owned, be it as a reward, or purchased, was converted into a useless item. At one time, characters and items within the game could bring you up to £300 on ebay. Now no one wants them at all, or they no longer exist.
Since day 1, I had been, like everyone else, working towards becoming a Jedi, which as I said was a hidden unlock. This could only be achieved from a minimum of 5 months solid gameplay, until now. Now anyone can use the name Jedi from day 1, but even then, it isn't what it used to be. If you choose the role of Jedi, you will be no different from any other profession in the game. Nothing makes you special, in fact, you are the weakest profession of all 9 (used to be 32). You have no special powers, senses, anything that relates to the Star Wars stories. You may as well consider your lightsaber a Salami. You could put this down to a bug, however it is common knowledge that the Sony Online Entertainment team has been trying to put people off of being Jedi for over a year now, with patch after patch weakening you in every way. Week after week we were fobbed off with stories of "waiting for George Lucas to approve changes" until 7 months later the slate was wiped clean, and your character as it existed had been erased. You can barely attack anything now, as "targeting" had also been removed. You are no longer afraid of your character dying, as death is no punishment anymore. Now people deliberately walk into red hot lava as a form of transport, since they'll be immediately teleported to a hospital, without wounds, or side effects whatsoever. Again not a bug, this was a conscious decision by Sony Online Entertainment to do. There were thousands of things I could once list about this game which made me play it and love it, but all of those things have now gone. This is now in essense, a consol game on the PC, which many players believe to be Sony Online's intention (with the launch of the XBox 360). You can no longer tailor your profession. Whatever you choose to be, you'll be no different from those of the same profession. The game consists of killing robots or animals, over and over and over and over again. Nothing else. If you're looking for PvP (Player Versus Player), look somewhere else, as that's been removed too. You will find you are forever pressing random keys on the keyboard as the UI is now completely incomprehensible. This has never been a bug free game. Although MMORPG's are generally buggy, this sets new records. You'll be forever sending "tickets" to customer service to get your character out of a terrain bug, or that items in your inventory disappeared only to get the response "We are very sorry and feel your pain, but ..." Additionally, this is the only MMORPG game with more server downtime than uptime. At times, we have witnessed servers down for days on end. Without the server being up, you were unable to play the game at all. Lastly, The game Developers and Customer Service team are unwilling to hear from you unless it is with flattery for themselves or the game. Trust me this is not written out of anger, any player of the game will confirm this. I had an issue once and asked for help, and got a pre-written response, the CSR had clearly not read my question. I had to resend the question and was told that I had gotten my response and that I was to not ask again as it was deemed "harrassment". It kinda reminded me of ebay! The biggest complaint players have had since day 1 is that Sony Online has NO customer loyalty/service at all. Over the past year, we have seen thousands of people banned from the forum and the game, for voicing their opinions about the drastic patch changes to the game, and making requests for future changes, most of which, were perfectly reasonable. I myself asked for a refund today, perfectly calm, without sarcasm or profanity. When I checked back later to see if I got a response, this is what I got:- "We're sorry, but you have been banned from using this site." 15 months of loyalty, ended with this. George Lucas and Sony, two of the biggest names in the world, now have the worst reputations in gaming, thanks to Sony Online Entertainment. This game was supposed to evolve to be more "fun" yet no existing player is having fun at all. In fact, they are all outraged. I urge anyone not to buy this game. If it is bought for them, prompty take the receipt and exchange it for anything else. You will not be given a refund if you bought it as a Digital Download. I have now had to approach the Federal Trade Commission in order to try to get my money back, after going through all the channels of Trading Standards here, and in America. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done with a company taking my money outside the UK.
The game's designers will be live on American TV tonight to respond to all the players complaints.
http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/episodes/4850/Julio_Torres_Kevin_Rubio.html
Some player reviews can be found here.
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/259862.asp
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/starwarsgalaxiesstarterkit/index.html
http://rr.pc.ign.com/rr_obj/781/781304.html
http://www.fileplanet.com/158580/150000/fileinfo/Star-Wars-Galaxies:-Starter-Kit-File-2-[Digital-Purchase ]
http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/star-wars-galaxies-2005/667893p1.html (This is an important interview, between Gamespy website, and the creators of the game)
http://forums.station.sony.com/swg There are a lot of important player "complaints" on the manufacturer's website, but the staff at Sony are working hard to delete them as fast as they are being written. I would love to put forum URL's into this email, but all you'll get now is " The Message you are trying to access has been deleted. Please update your bookmarks". If you are quick enough, you might be able to catch "the horses mouth" at the moment it is posted. It is important that you see those, as they are a literal representation of the hundreds of thousands of fans true feelings.
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Please note: this game is played online only;
you'll need an Internet connection, plus a credit card for registration. A
monthly subscription fee, payable by credit card, is applicable
