Are massively multiplayer online role-playing games still a "thing" anymore? Oh sure there is EVE Online (more than two decades old and still going strong) and I'm going to hazard a guess that World of Warcraft is even today enjoying much play. And every so often when curiosity hits I log into the original Guild Wars, now 21 years since its launch and as beautiful as ever while also remaining free to play.
Once upon a time though, MMOROGs dominated much of the market. And one of those games was Star Wars Galaxies. It was a title that gave me countless hours of enjoyment and thrill and it did for many others too. At last we would not be simply watching the Star Wars saga, we could be living in it too.
So it was that a few days after Christmas 2003, I signed in and began my online Star Wars life as Slanner Kwintz (nobody has ever figured out the inspiration for that name). And after a humble beginning I gradually built up my toon until he was a fairly good bounty hunter. But there was a softer side to Slanner too. He supplemented his income by farming and mining. It's what got him his own cute little house near Mos Eisley on Tattooine, complete with moisture vaporator... and wasn't it so nice to watch the twin suns setting from my front porch. Slanner had a ship named the Mare of Steel (another reference that nobody seems to have picked up on) that after some clever item crafting and placement featured a holding cell for captured quarry. Also among his possessions were various droids, and a rideable dewback that I named Brunnhilde.
That was my own personal story in Star Wars. And a jillion other people have wanted to have theirs somewhere in that universe and Star Wars Galaxies was a chance to do that. The publishers presented the players with a sandbox inside of which a magnificent economy thrived. It was a true thing of beauty. For some people that was enough: they were content to live simple lives like Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. That could take any number of forms, including being a medic or an entertainer (I've lost count of how many lap dances I got in the cantina). But many more wanted a life more daring and so they became full-bore Rebel agents, Imperial officers and stormtroopers, smugglers (whose contribution to the economy was their manufacturing spices that bestowed temporary boosts to abilities)... there was a way to participate in Star Wars for practically anybody.
And then there was the Jedi.
Sony Online Entertainment said before the game came out that players could become Jedi. But the path was a difficult one, and not something that could be replicated by other players. Becoming a Jedi involved finding certain very rare items, completing various career tracks in a particular way (unique to each character)... as Star Wars Galaxies was set during the period between the movies A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back the Jedi were extremely few and far between.
They were supposed to be anyway.
It came to be that a lot of players were griping about not getting to be Jedi. And that led Sony Online to alter Star Wars Galaxies with "new game enhancements" that among other things let players be Jedi right out the gate.
It ruined the game. There almost instantly came to be too damn many Jedi. Everyone could have an overpowered character now. The career tracks that were so lovingly nurtured went right out the window. And so did the game's economy.
The new game enhancements destroyed nigh nearly everything that made Star Wars Galaxies so special. It ceased being a title that let people make their own unique impacts on the saga. Instead it became "Star Wars Costume Party". I knew the game's days were numbered the moment I saw dozens of Jedi and presumably Sith fighting it out with lightsabers in a market square on Corellia.
Star Wars Galaxies became an object lesson in not necessarily giving players - and people in general - what they want most. Because if something special and unique gets to be grasped by everyone, it fast loses its allure and charm. What Sony Online Entertaiment should have done was to allow Jedi to be a playable class but keep having it be quite difficult to achieve. There was nothing wrong with it being that way. Had Sony kept to that, and better managed the game, I don't think there would be any reason why Star Wars Galaxies couldn't have endured to this present day. Sony was granted a license to print money with this game, practically. And instead they killed the goose that laid the golden eggs.
A YouTube channel called /noclip is devoted to producing documentaries about the various aspects and history of video and computer gaming. A few days ago they released "The Story Behind Star Wars Galaxies' Notorious Jedi Problem", a 33-minutes long examination of the Star Wars MMO, its glory days, and its downfall. It's quite a worthy work to watch if you're at all interested in Star Wars or gaming.
Who knows. Maybe someday there can be another Star Wars MMORPG, set during the classic period of the original trilogy. Perhaps the studio and Lucasfilm will have learned the lessons of Star Wars Galaxies and set out to make another terrific player experience that doesn't require or even want to be overwhelmed by over-powered characters.
Perhaps someday, Slanner Kwintz will hunt again. I'm looking forward to that if he can.
